UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi Forums,

It seems to me that I can't use "su" command. When I type "su", I get the following message:
/sbin/su - Permission denied

Am I missing any thing?

By the way I am using IRIX6.5 on a SGI computer. Many thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers, Siavoush

Check the permissions on the file -
ls -l /sbin/su

If you can not do that, check the permissions on the directory
ls -ld /sbin

Check for read - execute on both for world or group (group would be fine as long as you belong to the group). If the file/directory do not have r-x for group or world, then you cannot excute the program.

Most System Admins will revoke users permissions to su to another user. If you are root you should never receive this error message.

If you are logged in as yourself and you type: su username

and still get the error message see your administrator.

hi,

how made the admin this??? i want that an error occurs wenn the user type in su!!! ist there a config file??

greetz
adme

Configuring su for a user depends on the operating system. If you are using AIX these rights can be removed using smit. If you are using another system search the companies website for user properties or security settings. Most companies will give you some information, if not all, on how to control there system via the internet.

Dear adme,

There are several Security software packages that will monitor unauthorized access to root user which will give email to root.

Also, I don't know what OS version you are using, but in HPUX, there is a config file that allows/restricts su rights, called scfmgr.

However, it is proprietary to HPUX only. Many versions of UNIX don't regulate the su command other than changing the permissions.

Just turing off su to all except root is sometimes impossible to do because some applications, ie Oracle, NetBackup, need su ability to get to root to execute some commands as root.


You will just have to protect the root password closely.

Dear Forum,

I have changed the permission for su and now it looks like this:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root sys 44368 Jan 25 2001 /sbin/su*

I am also a member of system and have been granted all privileges. However, when I am logged in as myself, I get the following message:

Running with insufficient privilege.

Any help much appreciated.

Cheers,