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Securing root Access The root account is the most powerful account on a Linux system. This is also an account that should not be allowed to access the system from just anywhere. Think of this situation: you need to access a Linux system to restart a particular daemon that has failed. The system is in another building at least three minutes away. You could just use telnet to access the system remotely and restart the failed daemon; however, being the astute administrator, you recall that telnet transmits all information in clear text. Anyone listening to the packets on the network can hone in on the root password as you type it and send it over the network. Certainly, this is not a desirable situation. It is this reason that root is prohibited from accessing a system remotely using telnet. Red Hat and Red Hat-based systems use a file in the /etc directory named securetty to control this type of situation. The /etc/securetty file controls from what locations root can access the system. The figure below displays a sample securetty file. Notice that the ttys are all specified in this file. A tty is a console access point. To restrict root from any more than a single tty, or virtual console, simply remove the line from the securetty or comment out the line in the securetty with an octothorpe at the beginning of the line. Sample /etc/securetty file.

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