[cobalt-security] pro's and cons of not letting GUI change root password

["Jelmer Jellema" <cobalt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

There has been a lot of discussion about changing the root password to let
it differ from the admin password. The mean argument was: when they got the
admin password, they won't have the root password. The argument against this
was: when the got the admin password, the can change it in the GUI, which
changes the root password as well.

In /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/Cobalt/User.pm, in the sub user_mod, there
is this loop:
##
        while (<PASSWD>)
        {
            if (/^$Adminuser:/o)
            {
                print PTMP "$name:$pass:$uid:$gid:$desc:$dir:$shell\n";
            }
            elsif (/^root:/o)
            {
                print PTMP "root:$pass:0:0:Root:/root:/bin/sh\n";
            }
            else
            {
                print PTMP;
            }
        }
##

By commenting out the line starting with
print PTMP "root:

I will make sure the root password will not change when I change the admin
password in the GUI.

I can only come up with 2 reasons why this is a bad idea:

- locking out if root password forgotten.
- warranty-issues (well...)

My questions:
- Are there more arguments against doing this?
- Will the button on the frontpanel still work, as to reset the root
password? Or is this only for admin?

Thanks,
Jelmer
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