Tiny Core Linux

Tiny Core Base => TCB Q&A Forum => Topic started by: ixbrian on August 01, 2010, 09:46:47 PM

Title: A couple of password questions
Post by: ixbrian on August 01, 2010, 09:46:47 PM
I have a couple of questions regarding passwords (I understand it is possible to change the passwords via your backup file, these questions are just related to how Tiny Core runs by default): 

- When using the "user=" boot code, the custom user is assigned a password of "tcuser".  If you don't specify the "user=" boot code, the default tc user doesn't have a password set.   Why the difference? 

- Why does the root user have the password set to "root"? 

- Instead of having these 2 default passwords, would it be more secure to not have passwords defined at all for these accounts? 

Thanks,
Brian
Title: Re: A couple of password questions
Post by: roberts on August 02, 2010, 01:32:53 AM
For user root we don't want autologin, for user tc we do.
Additional users were typically for ssh access, where you would want at  least a default  password.
You can always to choose to setup your own passwords with the protect and secure boot options.
Title: Re: A couple of password questions
Post by: ixbrian on August 02, 2010, 08:28:52 AM
For user root we don't want autologin, for user tc we do.
Additional users were typically for ssh access, where you would want at  least a default  password.
You can always to choose to setup your own passwords with the protect and secure boot options.

Thanks for the information.  I have a couple of suggestions:

If the root password was set to "*" in /etc/shadow, I think this would prevent autologin, while also not providing a default root password.  Not having a default root password could prevent possible security issues once users start installing extensions. 

Regarding the default password for custom users created with "user=", it might be helpful if this was better documented that there is a default password (possibly in the ISOLINUX f2/f3 files?).  I wasn't aware that there was a default password until I saw it in the tc-config script. 

Thanks,
Brian
Title: Re: A couple of password questions
Post by: roberts on August 07, 2010, 02:18:29 PM
root password set to *
Thanks!