10.13.2 supplemental update & root account

[William H. Magill]

As I understood the description of the patch/update — the Root Account is only de-activated if it has no password.
Making it just like all previous releases of OSX.

If you have activated the Root Account and supplied a password, then nothing happens.

Read Mac Rumors description:  
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/11/29/apple-fixes-root-password-bug-security-update/

The original bug description:
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/11/28/macos-high-sierra-bug-admin-access/



> On Jan 15, 2018, at 4:21 AM, Bjarne D Mathiesen <macintosh at mathiesen.info> wrote:
> 
> Jan Stary wrote:
>> I don't get it. 10.13.2 does _not_ have a root account by default? Why?
>> And if it does, how is that a problem? It's UNIX, of course there is
>> a 'root' account.
> 
> macOS out-of-the-box has a de-activated root account; eg you can't log
> in as root or ssh into the box as root. The root account exists but in a
> dormant state and is accessed though sudo from admin accounts.
> 
> One of the things I do on my boxes is activating the root account; and
> in some cases removing the other admin accounts, so I've only got root
> and users. Now, if the root account is de-activated you have no way of
> administering the box - even with sudo at normal user accounts can't use
> sudo.
> 
> Also if you have scrips that eg ssh into the box from the outside, this
> will completely thow off your setup.
> 
> -- 
> Bjarne D Mathiesen
> Korsør ; Danmark ; Europa
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> denne besked er skrevet i et totalt M$-frit miljø
> macOS 10.13.2 High Sierra (17C205)
> 2 x 3,46 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon ; 48 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC
> ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB

"Never be cruel; never be cowardly; and never ever eat pears.” - The Doctor

William H. Magill                                                            

magill at icloud.com
whmagill at gmail.com