able to login as root via ssh :-(

[Robert Locke]

On Tue, 2006-08-08 at 13:57 -0400, William Hooper wrote:
> Don Russell wrote:
> [snip]
> > In order for a remote system to be in a state that remote access is even
> > possible, there must be an OS already running. In order to install the
> > first OS, physical access to the box must be required. It has to be
> > physically connected etc. At the very least the power has to be turned
> > on.. it might then proceed to do a network install...
> >
> > At that first install time is when a second user id should be created....
> 
> Non-root users are creating doing firstboot, not during the install.  If
> you aren't there to go through the firstboot process, you can't create any
> users other than via root.
> 
> I don't recall off the top of my head what kickstart lets you do with
> respect to user creation.  It is conceivable that using kickstart to do a
> PXE install will leave a headless machine with no way to access it except
> via a root ssh session.

Well, kickstart and/or the interactive install could tie you in to
various network directories like NIS or something LDAP based to give you
non-root users...

But, of course, kickstart could add a user in a myriad of ways to the
local passwd/shadow/group files during the %post section like:
useradd -p encryptedpassword username

--Rob