Linux Admin Account

[Saphirea]

So, I'm working on these used firewalls that have previous configs on it all of them we've been able to get through the bootloader to config a new Admin account and then wipe the box.
I got this one though that won't reset so, BG I'm wondering do any of you guys know a way to erase an Admin password on a linux box (all these firewalls are is pretty much Red Hat with configs on the eth0,1,2,3 ports)

I haven't been able to find anything on interwebs about this but man, I need to be able to get into it so I can wipe and config with a new IPSO.
Anyone?

[Killgannon]

if you can find a live CD (the gentoo live CD works well) and chroot into your other enviroment you should be able to use passwd and change it...

[Saphirea]

Thats a good idea, but won't work. Devices don't have a CD Rom or Floppy disk or anything else like that. Just a console port and 4 ethernet ports.

It's an actual device, but its no longer supported by Nokia so I can't find anything online.
I tried doing the Ctrl-x to get to the bootloader but it's not using from what I can see Lilo or Grub.

[Killgannon]

no factory reset button on it anywhere? id call the manufacturer if there isnt, theres probably some key combo to break it (i know there is in cisco stuff but i dont remember it atm)

[Kurgan]

There's a way you can use another Linux machine to mount the HDD and edit the /etc/passwd file. However I wouldn't recommend doing that with an appliance device using a customized Red Hat OS.

You might try just contacting the manufacturer first. They may have a special command line at boot or key sequence you can press to boot up the machine in some sort of recovery mode to reset passwords or erase configurations or what-not. I'd be hesitant to do what I'm talking about on an appliance because most of them have a heavily CUSTOMIZED version of Red Hat OS. It may not even work, or could even screw up the OS/software on the HDD.

I doubt the Cisco method (ctrl-break and change config-register) will work for this.

[Saphirea]

So after hitting random sequences today, and I don't know how I did it but I somehow managed to get to the bootmgr> prompt.

I looked up what I could do from there and I was limited I could ls and I could boot

So I tried boot -s and it worked booting the machine into a single user mode. From there I could edit the /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow and was able to open the box. Crazy thing though is I could find documentation online for versions previous to this model but none of the config ways worked ctrl + break worked in previous models.

anyways thanks for the ideas guys. Got in and got it wiped.