GNU bash as a root shell

You don't like csh, sh, or whatever ?
To make bash a root shell you need some security
If ever there's a problem with mount, root could get blocked on shared libs

a root shell therefore has to be compiled statically

lets see
note: % means unprivileged user prompt, and # means root.


1/ get bash source & decomp

% wget http://ftp.club-internet.fr/pub/gnu/bash/bash-2.05.tar.gz
% tar xzvf bash-2.05.tar.gz
% cd bash-2.05

2/ configure static, and compile
*warning* : this is long!
just the configure takes about 5mins on my athlon 800/384mb/7200rpm hdd box

% sh configure --enable-static-link --prefix=/usr
% make

get it a little smaller

% strip bash

see the difference:

before:
-rwxr-xr-x    1 pviet    users     3295422 Oct 17 13:21 bash

after:
-rwxr-xr-x    1 pviet    users      814724 Oct 17 13:21 bash

3/ install

get root:
% su
password: ****
# 

now lets install

# make install
# mv /usr/bin/bash /bin

4/ add it to /etc/shells

echo "/bin/bash" >> /etc/shells

5/ now you can 'chsh' ;)

# chsh


--
Patrick Viet <pviet@delta6.net>
on the web, http://home.delta6.net/