Ubuntu 10.10 Server : Grub 2 Password Protection

Here are some steps to password protect recovery mode menu entries in Grub menu in Ubuntu 10.10.

1. Install dependancies :

sudo apt-get install grub-common

2. Add the following the bottom of /etc/grub.d/00_header.  Replace myUser with the authorized user name and myPassword with the corresponding password.
   

   cat << EOF
   set superusers=”myUser”
   password myUser myPassword
   EOF

3. To password protect the Recovery Mode option, edit /etc/grub.d/10_linux :
   Replace

   printf “menuentry ‘${title}’ ${CLASS} {\n” “${os}” “${version}”

   With

   if ${recovery} ; then
   printf “menuentry ‘${title}’ –users user1 ${CLASS} {\n” “${os}” “${version}”
   else
   printf “menuentry ‘${title}’ ${CLASS} {\n” “${os}” “${version}”
   fi

4. Execute sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg.

If you want to encrypt your password in the configuration file, run the command grub-mkpasswd_pbkdf2. It will ask to type your password twice and will return the encrypted value. Replace the password your previously typed in the file /etc/grub.d/00_header with that long value…

References :

• Grub 2 Password Protection