Root login to kdm still possible even if disabled

This document (7007124) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 Service Pack 1

Situation

In order to deny root access to KDEs displaymanager kdm, the option AllowRootLogin in /usr/share/kde4/config/kdm/kdmrc was set to false but root is still able to login.

Resolution

Root cause:

/usr/share/kde4/config/kdm/kdmrc is the configuration file for kdm and provided by the kdm package. It comes already with AllowRootLogin=false set but /usr/share/kde4/apps/kdm/read_sysconfig.sh sets ALLOW_ROOT_LOGIN="true" . With this value it creates /var/adm/kdm/kdmrc.sysconfig which gets read by kdm upon startup and enables root login even if set to false.

As a temporary solution edit the file /usr/share/kde4/apps/kdm/read_sysconfig.sh and change line 32 from ALLOW_ROOT_LOGIN="true" to false .

Disclaimer

This Support Knowledgebase provides a valuable tool for SUSE customers and parties interested in our products and solutions to acquire information, ideas and learn from one another. Materials are provided for informational, personal or non-commercial use within your organization and are presented "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.