02-20-2016
Most UNIX have root not locked unless using RBAC perhaps but accessible to only very limited devices where ordinary people have no access...
Thats is why servers are in white? rooms where security is high and only the sysadms have access...
To answer
Quote:
would the system and its contents be inaccessible?? This is pure curiosity.
The only system I found with root disabled was a lab machine configured with another sysadm of my team, we were trying all figures to go further in security... and so using RBAC we disabled root account... Fine till we forgot the passwords... And realised we were doomed, though my friend and collegue is highly specialized in solaris ( as I had no small HPUX to use at the time ) this was a sparc/solaris 10, we just could not find a way to get back at the system, OK we may did more than just RBAC as we were trying to highly secure... So on one hand we achieved what we wanted, on the other we saw the silly situation we were in for not remembering the passwords...
Morality?
I am sure all serious sysadm configures his boxes with a backdoor only it may not be at a user level, and the minimum security to my eyes is to not let direct connection from the net unless dedicated lan to root even via ssh, using su/sudo only and having root only accessible from console which should be a real dedicated console (/dev/console...) on serial port or dedicated lan for lan consoles
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LEARN ABOUT CENTOS
pam_lastlog
PAM_LASTLOG(8) Linux-PAM Manual PAM_LASTLOG(8)
NAME
pam_lastlog - PAM module to display date of last login and perform inactive account lock out
SYNOPSIS
pam_lastlog.so [debug] [silent] [never] [nodate] [nohost] [noterm] [nowtmp] [noupdate] [showfailed] [inactive=<days>]
DESCRIPTION
pam_lastlog is a PAM module to display a line of information about the last login of the user. In addition, the module maintains the
/var/log/lastlog file.
Some applications may perform this function themselves. In such cases, this module is not necessary.
If the module is called in the auth or account phase, the accounts that were not used recently enough will be disallowed to log in. The
check is not performed for the root account so the root is never locked out.
OPTIONS
debug
Print debug information.
silent
Don't inform the user about any previous login, just update the /var/log/lastlog file.
never
If the /var/log/lastlog file does not contain any old entries for the user, indicate that the user has never previously logged in with
a welcome message.
nodate
Don't display the date of the last login.
noterm
Don't display the terminal name on which the last login was attempted.
nohost
Don't indicate from which host the last login was attempted.
nowtmp
Don't update the wtmp entry.
noupdate
Don't update any file.
showfailed
Display number of failed login attempts and the date of the last failed attempt from btmp. The date is not displayed when nodate is
specified.
inactive=<days>
This option is specific for the auth or account phase. It specifies the number of days after the last login of the user when the user
will be locked out by the module. The default value is 90.
MODULE TYPES PROVIDED
The auth and account module type allows to lock out users which did not login recently enough. The session module type is provided for
displaying the information about the last login and/or updating the lastlog and wtmp files.
RETURN VALUES
PAM_SUCCESS
Everything was successful.
PAM_SERVICE_ERR
Internal service module error.
PAM_USER_UNKNOWN
User not known.
PAM_AUTH_ERR
User locked out in the auth or account phase due to inactivity.
PAM_IGNORE
There was an error during reading the lastlog file in the auth or account phase and thus inactivity of the user cannot be determined.
EXAMPLES
Add the following line to /etc/pam.d/login to display the last login time of an user:
session required pam_lastlog.so nowtmp
To reject the user if he did not login during the previous 50 days the following line can be used:
auth required pam_lastlog.so inactive=50
FILES
/var/log/lastlog
Lastlog logging file
SEE ALSO
pam.conf(5), pam.d(5), pam(8)
AUTHOR
pam_lastlog was written by Andrew G. Morgan <morgan@kernel.org>.
Inactive account lock out added by Toma Mraz <tm@t8m.info>.
Linux-PAM Manual 09/19/2013 PAM_LASTLOG(8)