Grub password set after update

Discussions & Opinions
1

I have only carried out an update and after the update a Grub password was set under /etc/grub.d/07_passwd

#!/bin/sh
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Modified Calculate Utilities 3.7.6.8

Processed template files:

/var/db/repos/calculate/profiles/templates/2_ac_install_merge/sys-boot/grub/grub.d/07_passwd

To modify this file, create a /etc/grub.d/07_passwd.clt template.

#------------------------------------------------------------------------------

grub-mkconfig helper script.

Copyright 2016 Calculate Ltd. http://www.calculate-linux.org

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the “License”);

you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.

You may obtain a copy of the License at

Apache License, Version 2.0

cat <<EOF
set superusers=“root”
password_pbkdf2 root grub.pbkdf2.sha512.25000.8811E27C0F21C4F8BF17C2F87FAFD51AE39C73AE15C2D8FBBF9732C6D8BB772EC578AF558A1122C4B837C6D8BB17628C114228254488D17AAF15024088712E25.C1F64B01030B7BCF71646CBCC6DED813C64F4FA5653C3A8CC0B0CC5C34A9CC84F9F6BED3E040F44508826FD957C5714733C07ACA9CE66E44FCC07484F8B636A8
export superusers
EOF

I didn’t create the file, I don’t know where it came from. I used the following to update my system, it took a while because it is an old laptop and there was an KDE update and there were many ~amd64 packages to compile:

emaint -A sync && eix-update && emerge -avNDuq --keep-going --with-bdeps=y --complete-graph --verbose-conflicts @world && smart-live-rebuild && emerge @module-rebuild -q && emerge -aqv --depclean && emerge -avq --keep-going @preserved-rebuild && grub-install /dev/sda && grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

I changed some useflags on my system, installed some packages from overlays and installed many ~amd64 packages, but I don’t know what should trigger something like this.
I don’t know where the pw hash in /etc/grub.d/07_passwd came from, my passwords didn’t work with it.
I created my own hash and saved it there, and it works.

2

If you are experiencing this problem, the following steps may help to solve the problem. You need a medium from which you can boot, preferably Calculate or Gentoo, but other distros will also work.
Then you need to mount your hard disk and chroot into your system.


#mount your root  / partition (and possible other partitions like /boot if you have them):
mount /dev/sda4 /mnt

# mount necessary filesystems
mount --types proc /proc /mnt/proc
mount --rbind /sys /mnt/sys
mount --make-rslave /mnt/sys
mount --rbind /dev /mnt/dev
mount --make-rslave /mnt/dev
mount --bind /run /mnt/run
mount --make-slave /mnt/run

#do this if your boot medium is not gentoo based
test -L /dev/shm && rm /dev/shm && mkdir /dev/shm
mount --types tmpfs --options nosuid,nodev,noexec shm /dev/shm
chmod 1777 /dev/shm /run/shm

#chroot in your environment
chroot /mnt//bin/bash
source /etc/profile
export PS1="(chroot) ${PS1}"

#remove the password file
rm  /etc/grub.d/07_passwd 

#update grub cfg
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

After that, the grub PW should be gone and you can reboot.

3

Hello! By default, Calculate Linux sets a password for Grub. It is created to be the same as the root password. The file /etc/grub.d/07_passwd is generated during installation. I just checked, and nothing has changed. Grub asks for a password to prevent unauthorized access to the system by anyone who gains physical access to the PC.

4

Since when does Calculate Linux do this?
This installation of Claculate (KDE) was at least 8 months ago, no Grub password was set after the installation.

After this one update this file suddenly appeared, I have deleted 07_passwd in the meantime and already made a new update, but the file did not come back.

5

Password usage in Grub appeared in Calculate Linux about 7 years ago. The installer sets the root user password by default, unless you disabled this option during installation.

6

Anyway, when I not set it on installation, it should not set itself on a later update. There was another guy who said he had the same problem on Telegram.