HP-UX

I have a new box that was set up for me and I want to allow telnet to the box as root. I know that it's not secure but due to the nature of what I test I need an easy and reliable way back in if I've messed up the other connection methods(SSH). This is in a protected lab environment. Eventually I'll get sudo setup but I'm not ready for that now.

I can telnet as a regular user and then su to root just fine.
I cannot "telnet remote_server" as root user.
I cannot "telnet localhost" as root user.
I did not have an /etc/securetty file. I tried creating one with "console" in it to see if I could then get in via localhost but it didn't help.
I tried "/usr/lbin/modprpw -k root" and got the message "System is not trusted".
hosts.allow and hosts.deny are both commented out.

Most of the search results I get are about how to disable telnet for root but I have the opposite problem. Where else can I look or what can I do?

I don't suppose the system has a serial port?

Actually, I don't know for sure. I don't think so but even if it did, if you were thinking about using that as a method of access I wouldn't be able to do it. The machine sits in the lab but I don't. Thanks for your idea though.

You should have a lanconsole option... it may need to be configured though (preferably on another lan like an administration lan... ask your network team for a VLAN...). Remove the hosts.allow hosts.deny files (or mv them elsewhere ) while configuring they are maybe the culprits...

I need to be able to connect via telnet from a remote workstation and login as root. Period. Moving /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny unfortunately didn't help.

The trouble you have getting it working calls 'simple and reliable' into serious question.

Do you have a inetd.sec file ? (I configure such file on the HP boxes I administer...)