Hello,

On Tue, 13 May 2008, Kumar Appaiah wrote:
> I think this method of password recovery works on several
> distributions; wherein you can boot into single user mode and recover
> your password.

There are two different things you are mixing here:
 1. Single user mode obtained by boot option "single"
    In this case the user *is* prompted for a password
    for the default installation of most systems (for example
    Debian).
 2. Shell mode obtained by the boot option "init=/bin/sh".
    In this case the regular "init" is not run.

> However, I would also be interested in knowing a way to switch this off.

Conjunction of the following:

 A. Use a BIOS password to disable booting except from your
    regular boot device.
    
 B. Use a grub password to prevent the selection of any boot
    option except the standard one.

 C. Use disk encryption "cryptsetup" to prevent someone from
    accessing your hard disk physically.

(A) and (B) can also be replaced by

 D. Always use a CD/USB to boot the system. This way the system
 cannot be hard rebooted without your presence. For soft reboot
 use "kexec" which does not require the BIOS/grub.

Regards,

Kapil.
--

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