Re: remote login to root

[Bill Katsma <bkatsma@xxxxxxxx>]

Bruce Damkoehler wrote:
> 
> Jamie McCarthy wrote:
> 
> > john@emario.com (John M. Mario) writes:
> >
> > > Please excuse the newbie question.  This is my third day playing
> > > with linux.  When I telnet to my linux server, I am not able to
> > > login as root. Is this a security feature?
> 


> So I am curious, how is typing in "su" and a password less secure than
> logging in directly?  I will grant you that you need to know two logins,
> but the passwords are still going across the net in cleartext.

If you force users to log in as a user (or hopefully themselves) then it
will be logged who su'd to root.  Other wise if a user gets the root
password he could just remotely log in and all the log's would show is
what computer.

> 
> By the way, the answer to your questions is that the file /etc/securetty
> contains a list of ttys that permit a root login. What you do with the
> knowledge is up to you.