- Boot BackTrack Live CD
- Instructions:
- Select "BackTrack Text - Default Boot Text Mode"
- Press Enter
- Instructions:
- BackTrack5 Command Line
- Note:
- This is the screen you will see to begin the reset process.
- Note:
Section 3. Mounting the Boot Disk |
- Discover the Boot Disk
- Instruction:
- fdisk -l
- Note:
- This server was built with all the directories under the same partition.
- Typically, productions servers will have a partition per file system. In our case, this server was built with all the directory and filesystems under one partition.
- In the next step, we will mount up the /dev/sda1 partition.
- Instruction:
- Mount the Boot Partition
- Instruction:
- mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
- df -k
- Note:
- Since, all filesystems and directories are located under /dev/sda1 we will be able to access any file.
- Instruction:
- Navigate to the etc directory
- Instruction:
- cd /mnt/etc
- ls -l | grep shadow
- md5sum /mnt/etc/shadow > /mnt/var/tmp/before.txt
- This is part of the proof of lab.
- Note:
- By mounting /dev/sda1 to the /mnt directory, we know have access to the shadow file.
- Instruction:
- Edit the shadow file
- Instruction:
- vi shadow
- Instruction:
- Edit the shadow file
- Instruction:
- Right arrow over to the immediate next right position of the first colon.
- Press the "x" to delete all the characters, until you get to the second colon. Note, do not delete the colons.
- Instruction:
- Saving the shadow file
- Instruction:
- Press the "Esc" key
- Press <Shift> and the ":" key.
- Type wq!
- Press enter
- Note:
- Congratulations, You effectively cleared out the root password.
- Instruction:
- Post Lab Verification
- Instruction:
- md5sum /mnt/etc/shadow > /mnt/var/tmp/after.txt
- ls -l /mnt/var/tmp/*.txt
- cat /mnt/var/tmp/*.txt
- Note:
- The above command are not required to reset/clear the root password.
- This is only part of our pre-proof of lab instructions.
- Instruction:
Section 4. Reboot BackTrack |
- Reboot the server
- Instruction:
- shutdown -r now
- Press <Enter> when you see the line that says "Please remove the disc and close ..."
- Instruction:
- Login as root
- Instruction:
- Type "root" at the bt login: prompt.
- Note:
- After you press enter, you will not be prompted for the root password.
- Instruction:
- Change Root Password
- Instruction:
- passwd root
- Set the root password to our standard classroom password.
- passwd root
- Instruction:
- Proof of Lab
- Instruction:
- ls -l /var/tmp/*.txt
- md5sum /etc/passwd
- md5sum /var/tmp/*.txt
- date
- echo "Your Name"
- Replace "Your Name" with your actual name.
- e.g., echo "John Gray"
- Instruction:
- Change Back the Virtual Machine Settings
- Instruction:
- Virtual Machine --> Virtual Machine Settings...
- Instruction:
- Change CD/DVD Settings
- Instruction:
- Select CD/DVD (IDE)
- Select radio button "Use physical drive:" and make sure "Auto detect" is selected.
- Instruction: