Re: password backdoors

[vmendis () london micrognosis com (Virantha Mendis)]

On Thu, 11 May 1995, Larry Kealey wrote:

> > Can anyone enlighten me further into how this would be
> > done and if such back doors exist in other operating
> > systems.
>
> Under NeXTStep, one needs only to hold down both command keys (on  
> Non-NeXT hardware it may be the Alt or other keys) and hit the tilda,  
> the mini-monitor appears, you can then halt the machine. Then boot  
> the machine in single user mode: bsd -s, and you are logged in as  
> root at the system console. After that, you need to start the netinfo  
> daemons, then you can reset the root password using passwd.
>
> This will only work if the machine does not have a hardware password  
> set, if it does have a hardware password set, you can replace the ROM  
> chip with one from another machine to get in.
>
> I have also heard that the hardware password (and all the other ROM  
> settings) will get wiped if you remove the battery for a while, but I  
> haven't tried it.(Haven't had the need... :>)
> Does anyone know?

Ya, it works. That's what i did when i forgot the hardware password.


> L Kealey
> Phibro Energy USA, Inc.