If you have physical access to a Linux computer, then your options are unlimited. Manipulating grub could be one of it.
Things that come in my mind :
- Use USB Flash/CD to boot something else, mount the hard-drive and do some nasty stuff to passwd file.
- If you have your BIOS locked, you can simply remove the hard drive and use another box to do the same.
- If you got your BIOS locked with a password, you can simply remove the battery for 1-2 minutes and put it back!
- No access to the battery?! Remove the hard drive, boot from CD/usb key ( since there is no hard drive almost every BIOS will search for something to boot from ) and flash the BIOS :D
No system is secured if you have physical access to the hardware.
Great ideas! Of course, system can't be secure when you have physical access to the hardware.
What I shared is is not an attacking method, but just a recovery method, which was helpful for me recently, so I hoped that it can be helpful to someone else as well.
Comments
If you have physical access to a Linux computer, then your options are unlimited. Manipulating grub could be one of it.
Things that come in my mind :
- Use USB Flash/CD to boot something else, mount the hard-drive and do some nasty stuff to passwd file.
- If you have your BIOS locked, you can simply remove the hard drive and use another box to do the same.
- If you got your BIOS locked with a password, you can simply remove the battery for 1-2 minutes and put it back!
- No access to the battery?! Remove the hard drive, boot from CD/usb key ( since there is no hard drive almost every BIOS will search for something to boot from ) and flash the BIOS :D
No system is secured if you have physical access to the hardware.
Great ideas! Of course, system can't be secure when you have physical access to the hardware.
What I shared is is not an attacking method, but just a recovery method, which was helpful for me recently, so I hoped that it can be helpful to someone else as well.