Is it possible to extract the root password from the file system?

[Steven A. DuChene]

There are password hacking tools out there you could run against the encrypted password that
is stored in /etc/shadow but if there is a locked root account there may not be an encrypted
password for root in that file and you will never be able to login.
--
Steven DuChene

-----Original Message-----

From: Mark Phillips 

Sent: Jul 12, 2011 11:16 AM

To: Phoenix Linux Users 

Subject: Is it possible to extract the root password from the file system?



I have a new Buffalo LS-WXL NAS and I would like to root it. It has the
newer firmware version, 1.43, and the instructions for rooting it (
http://buffalo.nas-central.org/wiki/Category:LS-WXL) have not caught up with
the new firmware. However, I was able to unzip the firmware to my laptop and
it appears that ssh root login is now enabled in the stock firmware. I
confirmed this by trying ssh to the machine.....but, I need the root
password to login. How can I extract the root password from the file system
for the device? I just have the file system unzipped on my hard drive, I
don't have access to it running.

I assume Linux/Linus has made it impossible to get at the root password this
way (e.g. from a copy of the file system), but I thought I would ask anyway
before I try to install some custom firmware on the NAS device.

Thanks,

Mark