So so.. this is something techy, something about Ubuntu, and something about having fun! You people must have heard a lot about hacking into the Windows XP/Vista administrator accounts when you're given only a limited account. Many of 'em doesn't work at all, as for a fact. Well we'll talk about something more interesting.. hacking into Ubuntu when you're given a limited account!
Where there is a will, there is a way. In our college department computer lab, we're all given those stupid limited accounts - in both Windows and Ubuntu. And that is crap. We can't install compiz fusion in Ubuntu, while in Windows we can't play those ol' games(Mortal Kombat, Roadrash..) during lab hours :( So I decided to take revenge, and went into this research about hacking into the walls. And it was a grand success! Let me tell you how..
1) First of all, let the system boot.. and wait for the GRUB menu to appear. You can see various options listed out. Now press 'e' to go to the edit menu(where you can add parameters to the boot process). In a smaller list that appears, select the appropriate option(Usually the 2nd one).
2) Now you get the boot script all open for editing. Delete off the part saying quiet splash(this is optional), and most important, add this part at the end :
Press enter. Then press 'b' to boot the edited option.
3) After booting up, Ubuntu shows up just a fullscreen terminal showing root@none
Yeah! you've got a root terminal which doesn't need a password!
The following steps are even easier..
Mount the root partition
You may need to type this after that: (this is optional, but it's better you do this)
Then we reset the root password for the system
When you do things right, you get a message that password has been updated successfully.
Type this in finally, just to make sure everything is fine and good.
Go on.. restart the computer!
4) Let Ubuntu boot. Login to your limited account as if nothing happened.
Open the terminal and type in:
5) Okey! now you are the root. When you're root and you know the correct commands, you can do anything in Ubuntu!
As for now, we'll simply add our limited account to the admin group
For me, the limited account given is student. To give admin privileges to this account, I just added it to the following groups.
Adding to the admin group is enough. But just to ensure freedom.. :)
Liked the post ? Let us know ^_^
I'm done, and I installed some softwares and customized my own Ubutnu machine :D
That was simple, wasn't it. Now, whenever you get an Ubuntu machine do try this. Hack into your friends computer!
And for people who haven't tried Ubuntu yet.. go on try it once, you'll love it!
Check the Ubuntu site :)
Where there is a will, there is a way. In our college department computer lab, we're all given those stupid limited accounts - in both Windows and Ubuntu. And that is crap. We can't install compiz fusion in Ubuntu, while in Windows we can't play those ol' games(Mortal Kombat, Roadrash..) during lab hours :( So I decided to take revenge, and went into this research about hacking into the walls. And it was a grand success! Let me tell you how..
1) First of all, let the system boot.. and wait for the GRUB menu to appear. You can see various options listed out. Now press 'e' to go to the edit menu(where you can add parameters to the boot process). In a smaller list that appears, select the appropriate option(Usually the 2nd one).
2) Now you get the boot script all open for editing. Delete off the part saying quiet splash(this is optional), and most important, add this part at the end :
init=/bin/bash
Press enter. Then press 'b' to boot the edited option.
3) After booting up, Ubuntu shows up just a fullscreen terminal showing root@none
Yeah! you've got a root terminal which doesn't need a password!
The following steps are even easier..
Mount the root partition
mount -o remount,rw /
You may need to type this after that: (this is optional, but it's better you do this)
mount -o remount,rw /proc
Then we reset the root password for the system
passwd
Enter new password
Confirm new password
Enter new password
Confirm new password
When you do things right, you get a message that password has been updated successfully.
Type this in finally, just to make sure everything is fine and good.
sync
Go on.. restart the computer!
4) Let Ubuntu boot. Login to your limited account as if nothing happened.
Open the terminal and type in:
su
type in the password you created sometime before
type in the password you created sometime before
5) Okey! now you are the root. When you're root and you know the correct commands, you can do anything in Ubuntu!
As for now, we'll simply add our limited account to the admin group
For me, the limited account given is student. To give admin privileges to this account, I just added it to the following groups.
adduser student admin
adduser student sudo
adduser student root
adduser student sudo
adduser student root
Adding to the admin group is enough. But just to ensure freedom.. :)
Liked the post ? Let us know ^_^
I'm done, and I installed some softwares and customized my own Ubutnu machine :D
That was simple, wasn't it. Now, whenever you get an Ubuntu machine do try this. Hack into your friends computer!
And for people who haven't tried Ubuntu yet.. go on try it once, you'll love it!
Check the Ubuntu site :)
