Bug 2364082

Summary: Not possible to SSH as root in recent Lorax created boot.iso images
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Martin Kolman <mkolman>
Component: loraxAssignee: Brian Lane <bcl>
Status: CLOSED ERRATA QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: rawhideCC: anaconda-maint, bcl, jkonecny, reallylongword
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: lorax-43.4-1.fc43 Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2025-05-06 18:41:12 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Attachments:
Description Flags
Failing ISO - /etc/shadow root screeshot
none
Successful ISO - /etc/shadow root screenshot
none
Failed ISO - journal output when ssh as root none

Description Martin Kolman 2025-05-05 12:47:31 UTC 
Since at least the April 21 Rawhide image, it is nor possible to log-in as root without password when using the inst.sshd boot option. This might be related to how the root user is created by Lorax, as /etc/shadow on affected images has a weird "root:!unprovisioned:<number>::::::" line together with the regular root user definition line.

Fedora 42 boot iso is not affected and passwordless root login after passing the inst.sshd boot option is possible as expected.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. pass the inst.sshd boot option
2. use the "ip a" command to find the machine/virtual machine IP address
3. try to connect as root: "ssh root@<IP>
Actual Results:
A password is requested. As no password has been set anywhere, this prevent root from logging in.

Expected Results:
You are logged in as root without password being required.
Comment 1 Jiri Konecny 2025-05-05 13:01:56 UTC 
Attaching images from the ISO where this is working and where it is not working anymore.

Also a note, the `installer` user SSH access works as expected.
Comment 2 Jiri Konecny 2025-05-05 13:02:55 UTC 
Created attachment 2088458 [details]
Failing ISO - /etc/shadow root screeshot
Comment 3 Jiri Konecny 2025-05-05 13:04:30 UTC 
Created attachment 2088459 [details]
Successful ISO - /etc/shadow root screenshot
Comment 4 Jiri Konecny 2025-05-05 13:09:32 UTC 
Created attachment 2088460 [details]
Failed ISO - journal output when ssh as root
Comment 5 Brian Lane 2025-05-05 21:26:39 UTC 
Proposed fix - https://github.com/weldr/lorax/pull/1469
Comment 6 Fedora Update System 2025-05-06 16:31:34 UTC 
FEDORA-2025-2d0f741832 (lorax-43.4-1.fc43) has been submitted as an update to Fedora 43.
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-2d0f741832
Comment 7 Fedora Update System 2025-05-06 18:41:12 UTC 
FEDORA-2025-2d0f741832 (lorax-43.4-1.fc43) has been pushed to the Fedora 43 stable repository.
If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.