Access to Virtualmin admin without adding a password to root

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#1 Sat, 01/12/2013 - 12:31
northgate

Access to Virtualmin admin without adding a password to root

I read in the installation guide that I would need to add a password to "root" user in order to access Virtualmin admin.

I run my server(s) on Amazon EC2 which uses SSH to access the instance which by default amazon configures an other user "Ubuntu" (in my case) to access the instance instead of via root.

Since adding a password to "root" user can be considered a security risk.

Is it possible to set up Virtualmin and access the admin area without adding a password to root?

Also will each user which is created via Virtualmin have access to my server via a their username and password, ftp and ssh or will they only be granted access (login) to just the client area of Virtualmin?

Sat, 01/12/2013 - 13:17
tpnsolutions
tpnsolutions's picture

Hi,

You should be able to accomplish this by logging into Virtualmin once with "root" privileges, then navigating to:

Webmin > Webmin > Webmin Users

Add a new user to take over the role, then delete the "root" user from the list. You could then revert your root settings on the instance to improve security if you desire.

*** Eric, Jamie, Joe, perhaps you could clarify this idea is correct and add anything missed ***

-Peter

Best Regards,
Peter Knowles | TPN Solutions
Email: pknowles@tpnsolutions.com | Skype: tpnassist
Sat, 01/12/2013 - 18:16 (Reply to #2)
northgate

Thanks for the explanation...

Awaiting further input from the other guys.

Sun, 01/13/2013 - 10:19
andreychek

Howdy,

Any user with sudo privileges can access Virtualmin as the Master Admin.

So if you were to take a user you have, and grant them sudo rights in /etc/sudoers, that would allow them to act as the root user.

Or, in the case of Ubuntu, that should work by default with the secondary user it sets up.

-Eric

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