On some systems the direct login of the root user is prohibited as a security measure. To become root one would have to log on as normal user and only then use
or something similar ("sudo", ...) to become root. It might be that your system is configured this way. You can usually see this in the "/etc/passwd" file where user accounts not allowed to log in directly have a certain field marked. For instance (from an AIX system, notice the "!"/"*" after the users name):
The users "root" and "daemon" are not allowed to log in ("!" in the second field), whereas "bakunin" is allowed to log in ("*" in the second field).
how can i change the superuser password?
the admin left the company, and we want to change the password.
to gain su access, i use:
# su -
password:***** (old password)
then, using passwd command it changes my own login password, not the root??
(this is not trying to block anybody's... (4 Replies)
Hi All,
Oracle 8.0 database is running on SCO-UNIXWARE 7.0 Operating system. Some how ORACLLE DATABASE has crashed. After rebooting the PC only the SUPER USER could login. No other user is able to login.
we need ORACLE user to start the DATABASE again.
It is asking for the password, after... (2 Replies)
My first post:
in /etc/rc2.d i have a startup script: Script1.
if you run #>scirpt1 stop/start from any user other than root you will get u must be supper user to run this script. eventhough the rights are 777.
Question: how can i get my user_a be able to run this script to stop and start it... (2 Replies)
hi All,
In my script I want to run some drop and select statements in the same host as a different user.I am inputting password for the superuser from the user who will be executing the script.
ie ,
I would be greatfull to you experts if you could suggest me how to proceed. (4 Replies)
I have a korn shell script (main.sh) owned by unix account "A". I want to execute certain lines in the script using another user "B" (with user "B" login profile). I need to do this way for multiple lines to be executed using different unix accounts in main.sh.
I was trying to use "su -... (3 Replies)
Hi!
Can someone please tell me how to log-in to Solaris as a superuser or as a root?
I have tried using "root" as a username, and my superuser password i had set in the terminal for the log-in password but it says "Roles can only be assumed by authorized users". "Permission denied."
I'm... (1 Reply)
I'm trying to add a superuser (admin) to plesk from SSH (I have root access). Can this be done? I have search over the web but did not find any solution to my problem. My version is Plesk 9.3 (0 Replies)
I have just installed Solaris 11. When I turn the computer on I don't want to see a login in screen. I want to automatically be logged in as "SUPERUSER".
My research tells me someone is going to tell me that's not wise or safe. I'm not interested in security advice. If someone I know is... (10 Replies)
Discussion started by: kkeevv
10 Replies
LEARN ABOUT LINUX
sudo_root
sudo_root(8) System Manager's Manual sudo_root(8)NAME
sudo_root - How to run administrative commands
SYNOPSIS
sudo command
sudo -i
INTRODUCTION
By default, the password for the user "root" (the system administrator) is locked. This means you cannot login as root or use su. Instead,
the installer will set up sudo to allow the user that is created during install to run all administrative commands.
This means that in the terminal you can use sudo for commands that require root privileges. All programs in the menu will use a graphical
sudo to prompt for a password. When sudo asks for a password, it needs your password, this means that a root password is not needed.
To run a command which requires root privileges in a terminal, simply prepend sudo in front of it. To get an interactive root shell, use
sudo -i.
ALLOWING OTHER USERS TO RUN SUDO
By default, only the user who installed the system is permitted to run sudo. To add more administrators, i. e. users who can run sudo, you
have to add these users to the group 'admin' by doing one of the following steps:
* In a shell, do
sudo adduser username admin
* Use the graphical "Users & Groups" program in the "System settings" menu to add the new user to the admin group.
BENEFITS OF USING SUDO
The benefits of leaving root disabled by default include the following:
* Users do not have to remember an extra password, which they are likely to forget.
* The installer is able to ask fewer questions.
* It avoids the "I can do anything" interactive login by default - you will be prompted for a password before major changes can happen,
which should make you think about the consequences of what you are doing.
* Sudo adds a log entry of the command(s) run (in /var/log/auth.log).
* Every attacker trying to brute-force their way into your box will know it has an account named root and will try that first. What they do
not know is what the usernames of your other users are.
* Allows easy transfer for admin rights, in a short term or long term period, by adding and removing users from the admin group, while not
compromising the root account.
* sudo can be set up with a much more fine-grained security policy.
* On systems with more than one administrator using sudo avoids sharing a password amongst them.
DOWNSIDES OF USING SUDO
Although for desktops the benefits of using sudo are great, there are possible issues which need to be noted:
* Redirecting the output of commands run with sudo can be confusing at first. For instance consider
sudo ls > /root/somefile
will not work since it is the shell that tries to write to that file. You can use
ls | sudo tee /root/somefile
to get the behaviour you want.
* In a lot of office environments the ONLY local user on a system is root. All other users are imported using NSS techniques such as
nss-ldap. To setup a workstation, or fix it, in the case of a network failure where nss-ldap is broken, root is required. This tends to
leave the system unusable. An extra local user, or an enabled root password is needed here.
GOING BACK TO A TRADITIONAL ROOT ACCOUNT
This is not recommended!
To enable the root account (i.e. set a password) use:
sudo passwd root
Afterwards, edit the sudo configuration with sudo visudo and comment out the line
%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL
to disable sudo access to members of the admin group.
SEE ALSO sudo(8), https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RootSudo
February 8, 2006 sudo_root(8)