Your password file got screwed up (I suppose).
Pinku
--- Rahul Jindal <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Hello all,
> something really strange happened today, strong
> enough to shake me, so don't
> mind the crooked language below.
>
> we have linux 6.2 installed on the computers in our
> lab. the admin logged
> onto a computer 8:30 in the morning and left the
> login in the root user a/c.
> after sometime we discovered that the system won't
> just let us perform the
> admin tasks. we could still login with other a/c
> names and work on the
> computer as normally as ever. we even started the X.
> only the admin
> functions wouldn't work.
>
> if we try su, it says the user root does not exist.
> the files such as
> /etc/shadow and /etc/password /etc/issue are
> apparently as always.
>
> THE MOST STRANGE PART IS THIS:
>
> 1. IF WE TRY TO LOGIN AS ROOT THE FOLLOWING HAPPEN
>
> IF THE PASSWORD IS THE SAME AS THE ADMIN HAD SET
> IT - THE SCREEN WOULD
> SIMPLY CLEAR, WITHOUT GIVING ANY MESSAGE.
> IF WE ENTER A WRONG PASSWORD, THE EXPECTED login
> incorrect APPEARS.
>
> apparently the "virus" scans for the actual
> password.
>
> 2. IF WE TRY TO RESTART THE COMPUTER BY DOING THE
> FOLLOWING
> A) PRESS CTRL-ALT-DELETE
> B) reboot
> C) SHUTDOWN -H 0
> THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE APPEARS
>
> "You don't exist anyway. Go away".
>
> What is this going on?
> The whole system has gone read-only. I call it a
> "virus" because there was
> no person who cud do this, those who were are the
> beginners in linux
> practising commands such as ls.
>
> Any clue or remedy is desparately awaited.
>
> Waiting
>
> Rahul
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------
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> mailing lists at http://lists.linux-india.org/
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