43 ms·
First step is actually passwd -l root for me, I alwasy lock the root password. After ensuring I have a working admin account of course. Using the root account
by INTPenis 5y ago
First step is actually passwd -l root for me, I alwasy lock the root password. After ensuring I have a working admin account of course.
Using the root account at all is obsolete imho. Fedora, CentOS and RHEL all allow me to skip setting a root password and just use my admin user.
- hansel_der 5y agoimho a distinct admin account is better than elevating a useraccount, which also runs a browser.
- INTPenis 5y agoYeah sure but it's still better to lock the root account and create a sudo admin account for all root tasks.
- hansel_der 5y agosure, security throu obscurity is somewhat valid as the attacker then has to discover the 'sudo admin account' instead of going for root directly
- INTPenis 5y agoHeh yeah but we don't call it security by obscurity because those are dirty words, we call it "best practice" instead. ;)
- hansel_der 5y agotrue
- maxk42 5y agoThat was explicitly mentioned in the article, as was disabling password-based logins entirely.
- deadbunny 5y agoThere is a difference between ssh disabling passwords and local accounts being disabled. Say ssh disallows password login but I know the root password, if I ssh on to the box as another user I can then su to the root user. If the root user does is locked I can't do this.