this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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If you've lost root credentials you can always bypass them.
https://www.tecmint.com/reset-forgotten-root-password-in-ubuntu/
When your in after this point you can reset the password to something you know then continue from there.
Wait wtf? You can just reset root password that easy? What’s even the point of having a password, if all of your data and info is so easily accessed if someone gets physical hold of the machine. I guess so software/remote hackers can’t get your stuff, but still. This seems wild to me, I dunno.
New to Linux so I’m sorry if I’m being ignorant, but it does seem crazy you can get access to a machine without the password.
Edit: Thanks for all the comments below! I guess I’ve been spoiled by BitLocker in Windows being enabled by default and not having to think of disk encryption. Appreciate everyone’s time and responses!
There needs to be some mechanism to recover your machine should this happen. It's not that much more difficult to do it on a windows machine either.
The truth of the matter is is if somebody has physical access to your machine it's not your machine anymore. They can pull out the hard drive and plug it into a machine that they have a password for and read from it if it's not encrypted. So on and so forth.
Which is why you never throw away a computer with the drives in it and you never throw drives away without physically destroying them. Don't give other people the chance to see your weird shit.