Password Protecting GRUB

Hello Friends,

We could configure boot loader password for preventing unauthorised access of grub menu.

But this solution does not prevent an attacker from booting into an insecure operating

system in a dual-boot environment.

So we could use lock directive for such prevention.

Below are steps for the same.

Step 1) Generate md5 encrypted password

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[root@station-x ~]# grub-md5-crypt

Password:

Retype password:

$1$pgjiX1$PVxHe8rI0a1S.Cgh4AKzB.

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Step 2) Edit grub.conf as shown below

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title Red Hat Enterprise Linux (2.6.32-220.el6.x86_64)

lock

password --md5 $1$pgjiX1$PVxHe8rI0a1S.Cgh4AKzB.

root (hd0,0)

kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32-220.el6.x86_64 ro root=UUID=224b3aa3-6cd2-4634-a409-1a834c46fa9c rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_LVM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rd_NO_MD quiet SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 rhgb crashkernel=auto  KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rd_NO_DM

initrd /initramfs-2.6.32-220.el6.x86_64.img

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