How secure is the login password?

RE: The security issue

In case of a server 100 % security is 'mission impossible'. It is exposed to online impacts 365 /24 /7. It is not accidental that Watson of IBM works off-line.

In case of a desktop or workstation - hinge disk, USB memory card, CD/DVD, working off-line, unplugging the wireless stick, etc. are much better approaches to keep sensitive information from unauthorized access than any password.


RE: How expensive is a supercomputer

PC supercomputer of class teraflop/s at present costs about USD 2000 - 3000 and the price is falling.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by user-f11

PC supercomputer of class teraflop/s at present costs about USD 2000 - 3000 and the price is falling.

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Cool. Where can I get one?

You can easily make a user who uses sudo provide the root password if you want. You can also limit what they can do. If you're truly concerned, you can ban sudo altogether. The most common use of sudo is on personal computers, though, which have one or a very few users, all family members or otherwise trusted. If you're administering a large network with multiple users, you obviously need to be more concerned with security, and take more precautions. On the typical home system, sudo is safer than logging in as root, IMO. If you don't trust the users on your system, you shouldn't let them do anything as root under any circumstances, or else use sudo to limit the actions they can perform. Once you get the root password and execute su, you can do anything you want, any time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by greyhairweenie

Cool. Where can I get one?

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You can assemble one by yourself.

See this for example:
YouTube - Core i7 X58 SuperComputer demo

With Fedora distro you can put instantly up to 4 monitors attached directly to the 4 virtual desktops of Gnome.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SkyHiRider

I know that if someone has access to a supercomputer that can do billions if not trillions of operation per second my pass can be cracked :) But gaining that kind of hardware is probably not very cheap and I dare to say that if my pass needs a supercomputer to crack it than I feel secure :)

I also know that if someone has physical access to my pc he can get inside by simply reseting the root password, I did that too when my server was hacked and the root pass was changed. It takes a few minutes to do that.

But what I really wanted to know is if I have a long and pretty decent password stored in the shadow file (hashed) is there a simpler way for a hacker to get the actual password (I don't care if he resets it, as I can always do the same if its my machine on my turf, but if he finds my root password he can gain my actual password and that would be a problem).

Are there rainbow tables for the hash function used in shadow and how decent the tables are if they exist?


Thats a good point, if someone resets my user password and logs in as me, will GNOME keyring unlock automatically or will it prompt for the old password as the login and pass in the keyring don't match? Will probably have to ask this one on the GNOME forum.

And I fully agree that using sudo as a variant of su is bad practice. Don't know if Ubuntu gives sudo all the rights or just limited access, but it's probably the first case.

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With root access or broad sudo access there is no need to change the user's password to become that user. This is a reason that I generally use Gentoo and avoid Ubuntu (which tries to give the user the feel of a very insecure OS and still say "Hey, man you are using Linux (which has been compromised by my sudo policy!))

My machine does not have a root entry in the passwd or shadow files and I can still do my admin, but you need to know the one user that can make use of sudo from the 60 usernames.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by user-f11

You can assemble one by yourself.

See this for example:
YouTube - Core i7 X58 SuperComputer demo

With Fedora distro you can put instantly up to 4 monitors attached directly to the 4 virtual desktops of Gnome.

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Ah. Factoring in my time for fabrication, testing, and troubleshooting puts it way out beyond your estimated cost. I misunderstood you: I thought you meant you could buy one for $2-3K.

RE: 'Factoring in my time for fabrication, testing, and troubleshooting puts it way out beyond your estimated cost.'

Yes, if you put yourself hourly rate like the bank managers (USD 600 000 per hour or so), it will cost you much beyond.

RE: 'Fabrication'
What are you going to fabricate.
All you need to do is to identify the computer architecture (as a type), and to find a linux distro (Live CD) for that architecture. Try several linux distros as Live CD, and choose one.
After that you may start compiling applications for that distro and that architecture ... and no others for no others.

A personal supercomputer is like a masterpiece of art.
In 'personal supercomputer' the key word is 'personal'. It needs personal touch, personal style, and personal approach.

RE: 'Testing'
So what are you going to test - a package either compiles or does not compile. This story with 'semi compiled' packages that need to be amended constantly - the package goes directly to the trash bin (actually gets uninstalled with the package manager or cleaned up from the computer).

Everything that could not use the hardware resources effectively - 'to the trash bin' - directly, without any reflections of how 'beautiful' is this piece of software, but does not work.

In this direction.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by user-f11

RE: 'Factoring in my time for fabrication, testing, and troubleshooting puts it way out beyond your estimated cost.'

Yes, if you put yourself hourly rate like the bank managers (USD 600 000 per hour or so), it will cost you much beyond.

RE: 'Fabrication'
What are you going to fabricate.
All you need to do is to identify the computer architecture (as a type), and to find a linux distro (Live CD) for that architecture. Try several linux distros as Live CD, and choose one.
After that you may start compiling applications for that distro and that architecture ... and no others for no others.

A personal supercomputer is like a masterpiece of art.
In 'personal supercomputer' the key word is 'personal'. It needs personal touch, personal style, and personal approach.

RE: 'Testing'
So what are you going to test - a package either compiles or does not compile. This story with 'semi compiled' packages that need to be amended constantly - the package goes directly to the trash bin (actually gets uninstalled with the package manager or cleaned up from the computer).

Everything that could not use the hardware resources effectively - 'to the trash bin' - directly, without any reflections of how 'beautiful' is this piece of software, but does not work.

In this direction.

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fab·ri·cate (fbr-kt)
tr.v. fab·ri·cat·ed, fab·ri·cat·ing, fab·ri·cates
1. To make; create.
2. To construct by combining or assembling diverse, typically standardized parts: fabricate small boats.
3. To concoct in order to deceive: fabricated an excuse.

I was thinking of meaning 2. Or are these parts going to put themselves together.

(To self, unsuccessfully: DNFTT, DNFTT, DNFTT....)

RE: 'To construct by combining or assembling diverse, typically standardized parts'

There are various options. If you don't know how to place the i7 on the motherboard you may pay somebody to assemble the hardware for you. The same applies if you don't know what hardware to buy, and/or how to choose the software on the grounds of the hardware.

If you don't know how to start installing the OS - there are software engineers and linux enthusiasts that against some payment or other goods or services on barter can do it for you.

If you expect that for USD 3000 you will get full-featured workstation with factory installed and pre-tested OS and applications, and artificial intelligence in addition - this is not the case.

This here is the pre-factory price - the lowest possible price of getting the computer parts as hardware and in 'in bulk'.

The assembling of a personal supercomputer is an adventure, it is a highly risky enterprise and presupposes that one can make personal estimate of whether he can take the risks or not, and how many and which of them, and to what extent.
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BTW the lowest possible price does never suppose neat finished product, cleared from all risks, and release from personal engagement, etc.

Gotcha. For $2-3K I can purchase the means to have an experience. I thought you meant I could buy a teraflop-class computer.

This is my final troll feeding on this thread, have at it with your pontifications.