Password protecting GRUB in RHEL/CentOS

Specifying a password to modify GRUB during the boot start-up phase can be initially set during the install, but it can also be manually added and or modified after the installation.

Using the grub-md5-crypt utility, you can generate an md5 hashed password (some security better than no security).

[root@centos6 ~]# grub-md5-crypt 
Password: 
Retype password: 
$1$/dvPV1$ngGsOO21eHj2lzEk7wg9d0

Now, is just a matter of adding the following entry in /boot/grub/grub.conf.

password --md5 $1$/dvPV1$ngGsOO21eHj2lzEk7wg9d0

Restart, and voala.

Tags: [ centos rhel security ]

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