UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I'm really a UNIX newbie. If someone can explain in detail, I would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

In a UNIX box, how do I know if a user has Admin privileges?

Good question.

It matters what is on the system - there are 3rd party products that may be installed to allow what seems to be a normal user access to commands or the root account. Anyone with the root password will have access to root account via the su command. Sudo is one of the more used products (it's free). Being in the wheel group may also allow a normal user to have 'special' access.

the user usually has admin privileges if he/she has uid=0 ... to quickly confirm, do "id username" and note user's uid ... or do "cat /etc/shadow" or "format" or "shareall" as the user --- if no errors, the user has admin rights ... (check the proper path for those commands) ...

however --- like rtm said --- some software will allow you to have some admin rights by their function even if your uid is not equal to 0 ...

Thanks for the responses.

I was told to /etc/password and grep out users that belong to the wheel group.

But that doesn't work for me on the UNIX system I use.