Re: [POSSIBLE GRAVE SECURITY HOLD]

[ruud@ruud.org (Ruud de Rooij)]

"Stephen R . Gore" <sgore@ev1.net> writes:

> [1  <text/plain; us-ascii (quoted-printable)>]
> Joseph Carter wrote:
> > On Wed, Feb 02, 2000 at 11:32:38PM +1100, Martijn van Oosterhout wrote:
> > > Err, there is a mistake here somewhere. If you are getting 1FA at the
> > > boot prompt then lilo is *NOT* in the MBR. If it were you would get the
> > > lilo prompt.
> > 
> > Why not?  If I hold down the wrong key too soon in the boot process, I get
> > a 3FA: prompt.  I press enter and get lilo as normal.
> > 
> > It's not a virus or a security concern.  Similar prompts happen on similar
> > machines lots.  No two machines seem to have the same "strange" prompt.
> 
> As far as I've been able to decipher, the prompt lists bootable partitions
> and devices (3FA == partition 3, floppy, and I once knew what the 'A' did,
> but have forgotten).

>From /usr/share/doc/mbr/README

4.1 The boot prompt
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The boot prompt looks something like this:

14FA:

This is the list of valid keys which may be pressed.  This means that
partitions 1, and 4 can be booted, also the first floppy drive
(F).  The A means that 'advanced' mode may be entered, in which any
partition may be booted.  The prompt for this mode looks like this:

1234F:

The only other valid key which may be pressed is RETURN, which
continues booting with the default partition.

	- Ruud de Rooij.
-- 
ruud de rooij | *@spam.ruud.org | http://ruud.org | http://weer.moonblade.net