Autologin 0.99.0 ================ (c) 2000 Red Hat, Inc. Written by Bernhard Rosenkraenzer <bero@redhat.com> What is it? =========== Autologin is a tool that lets you bypass the login screens on a unix system. It needs to be installed and configured by root (it is definitely not a cracking tool ;) ). Possible uses include providing a simple end-user system as well as creating a one-purpose (e.g. web browsing) station that returns to where it's supposed to be after a reboot or power outage without any intervention. autologin affects only local users - it doesn't open up any leaks for crackers from the outside world. How is it configured? ===================== Create the file /etc/sysconfig/autologin, containing the following settings: USER=[username] Start the session as the user specified here. This setting is mandatory. If omitted, autologin will not run. If autologin was compiled with --enable-paranoid, autologin will not run if the user specified has UID or GID 0. EXEC=[script or program] The script or program listed here will be executed as the user specified above. If this setting is omitted, /usr/X11R6/bin/startx will be used. AUTOLOGIN={yes,no} If this setting is omitted, "no" is assumed. /etc/sysconfig/autologin must not be writable by anyone but root. If it is, it is detected as a possible cracking attempt and autologin will not run. Do I need to do anything else? ============================== Yes - you need to have runlevel 5 start autologin. Starting from the initscripts 5.15 package, Red Hat Linux does this for you. If you are running a prior version or a different OS, simply replace the call to kdm, gdm or xdm with a call to autologin, or better yet, to a script that calls autologin and falls back to [kgx]dm if autologin fails. Is it safe? =========== I think so. Read the source to make sure. Patches etc =========== Send patches, comments, suggestions, big CPUs, money etc to bero@redhat.com, SPAM to /dev/null.