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Local Admin Account

This instructable goes over how to theoretically go about changing the local root password on Mac OS X to gain full admin privileges.

This is my first i'ble, so please comment

*Hehem. Emphasis on the word comment

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Step 1Why?

Me and my friend discovered this while trying to beat the various sysadmins at my school.

As long as what you are doing is within the UN declaration of human rights, I don't care.

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22 comments

Nov 22, 2008. 12:08 AM

admin says:

Hey, this is a great instructable and is very informative. Just one thing is missing... pictures! It really helps a lot when trying to follow directions so you should consider taking some photographs. Once you do that and leave me a message when you have so that we can publish your work. Thanks! Thanks for the cool instructable and we hope to publish this soon!

Nov 27, 2008. 8:13 PMvanbo (author) says:

Pictures are now up

Jul 14, 2010. 3:14 AMLyokoking99 says:

I feel your pain. Our school runs on Mac systems as well, but our District Level admins are pretty smart for school employees. They have blocked access to the Open Firmware (Single User Mode) with a password. Any ideas on how to get around that? I'm only asking for knowledge, I don't plan on breaking through their system.

Mar 23, 2011. 1:57 PMmacwhiz says:

reset the PRAM (google it) and then try single user mode

Aug 25, 2010. 8:32 AMElement1604 says:

any idea on how to do this the other way around? (Block access to single user mode on MY mac to protect from this?)

Mar 23, 2011. 1:58 PMmacwhiz says:

Put a firmware password on using the firmware password utility on the OSX setup disk

Aug 23, 2010. 2:51 PM

northernmagnet says:

uh huh sure i looked at this becuse im helping my school we run linux mac and windows how screwed up is that i need this becouse the owners of the macs left without giving the password

Jul 17, 2010. 6:46 PMlockpick says:

Won't the teachers know when there password has changed?

Sep 14, 2010. 8:10 PM

amandaggogo says:

Yes they will when they unfourtunatly try to log in and the old password will not work.

Feb 12, 2009. 4:15 PMtinkerC says:

Good. Now I know where the useful files are. I hack Macs, like changing the background image on the login window. Good 'ible.

Jul 8, 2010. 12:28 PMRedgerr says:

yeah dood, macs are terrible... IMAPC

Dec 23, 2009. 7:25 PMerikals says:

how do you do that for os x 10.2?

Dec 23, 2009. 8:18 PMtinkerC says:

Do what?
Should be the same as for 10.3 and 10.4, and so stupid, it is a file-rename :-)

Feb 12, 2009. 9:46 PMvanbo (author) says:

Why thank you.

Feb 13, 2009. 3:25 AMtinkerC says:

If you have more things you could do in single user mode, it might attract more attention. I didn't even know about /etc/rc until you said so. And I'm the guy who has changed the .hidden file.

Mar 24, 2010. 6:07 PMpattern86 says:

Any knowledgeable "Sysadmin" will have the firmware password enabled and you won't be able to boot into Single User Mode.

Mar 24, 2010. 8:06 PMvanbo (author) says:

You'd think so, woudn't you?

That said however, every time I've tried this on a school or corporate Mac network, it has worked. Go figure.

And yes, it is a perfectly valid point, but at the same time, if they do that, then there is a lot to be said for trying a USBoot with something like #!, which will probably work.

Mar 25, 2010. 8:10 AMpattern86 says:

Firmware password also disables booting from any volume other than the currently blessed system volume. The bad side to it is that you can't use Target Disk Mode, boot from a recovery CD, or any other media either... I personally find it more of a pain than a help, but if you want a truly locked down Mac, then I guess you gotta do what you gotta do.

Jun 7, 2009. 11:50 AMMr. Weigleweg says:

Whenever I type in /etc/ rc/ it just says /etc/ is a directory. I tried cd /etc/ rc/ but that just mounts it. Please help!

Mar 11, 2010. 10:55 PMScissors MacGillicutty says:

Type "/etc/rc" with no space or extra slash between "etc" and "rc"—and, naturally, no quote marks around it.

On my version of Mac OS X (Leopard), the file is called "/etc/rc.common", but that's once the machine is booted regularly, so try "/etc/rc" first. Good luck.

Mar 12, 2010. 1:58 AMScissors MacGillicutty says:

Also, at least with my version of Leopard, /etc/rc.common is not directly executable: it is read by a shell rather than executed. If you get the message

/etc/rc.common: Permission denied

enter this common instead

source /etc/rc.common

Dec 23, 2009. 7:29 PMerikals says:

this is sweet stuff

I recently took delivery of 25 iMac G3 DV/400s after the IT dept was throwing them out (they were still in the boxes) and tried this on each Mac.

I've since sold the Macs, but thanks to your 'ible, I can easily find my way around a Mac.