ethanschoonover,
@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar

Today I had to log into a server that wouldn’t bring up networking, so on site.

I was sent the password: SIXTY random characters. CaSe Num3rics, Symb0ls~! Everything. Random. Strong.

We had a problem. /bin/login was configured to timeout at 60 seconds.

I touch type but 60 fully random characters? I couldn’t break 50 before the minute was up.

Then I solved it:

I read them outloud, quickly, in a voice memo. Played it back so I could focus on rapid entry.

55 seconds later I had a root prompt.

ericphelps,
@ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

@ethanschoonover I use this...
http://inputstick.com/
...to act as a keyboard I can type into (or paste into) from my phone. That in itself has a bunch of uses, but a bonus is there's a plugin for my favorite password manager KeePass. Of course nobody else uses KeePass, but using your phone as a keyboard and mouse? That's handy!

webshinra,

@ethanschoonover Impressive. May-I suggest, if possible to édit the bootloader line to boot in root? (which is also a good solution if you don't have the password at all)

jc00ke,
@jc00ke@hachyderm.io avatar

@ethanschoonover you can store passwords on yubikeys too! It would have taken you longer than 55s though 😉

ethanschoonover,
@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar

@jc00ke I actually considered this! Did not have a yubikey with me at that time. I also considered whether I could configure a simulated USB keyboard device off my mac till I realized I might have a simpler solution. But Yubikeys FTW, no doubt.

alexmdunne,

@ethanschoonover

Meanwhile in a support hell I've not experienced in 25 years of satisfied Dreamhost customer experience: no reply to 5 support requests in 8 hours.

alexmdunne,

@ethanschoonover

! - next fuckin level

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