Root user permission

[Peter Garrett]

On Sun, 29 Oct 2006 22:38:04 -0700
Art Edwards <edwardsa at icantbelieveimdoingthis.com> wrote:

> smithveg wrote:
> > I have not much experiences in this topic, but i do interest in it.
> > Can someone offers a link of HOWTO about this topic 'root permission'
> > 
> 
> Mario Vukelic is right. However, you can easily set up a root password
> using sudo.
> 
> You can use sudo if you are part of the sudo group (see the files
> /etc/group and /etc/group-)

Sorry, this is wrong. If you look at /etc/sudoers , you will see that users
with sudo privileges are part of the "admin" group:

# Members of the admin group may gain root privileges
%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL

>  If you installed ubuntu then you are already
> part of the sudo group. 

No, you are part of the admin group. If you add yourself to the "sudo"
group, sudo will never ask for a password - it will let you act as root
without any authentication. This would generally be regarded as A Bad
Thing (tm) .


> To accomplish any administrative task such as
> apt-get update, you have to issue
> 
> sudo apt-get update
> 
> and then give your password. While this has security advantages, it is
> cumbersome for extensive administration. I simply issued
> 
> sudo passwd
> 
> and gave a root password. Now, I can use su, followed by the root
> password to gain superuser priviledges.

While it is true that you can do this, it is neither necessary not
regarded as desirable. See

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

<quote from the page referenced/linked above>

Going back to a traditional root account

<!> This is not recommended!

If all you need is to be able to work on a root console you'd better use
the command:

sudo -i

</quote>

On the whole I don't think encouraging new users to set up a root account
is a good idea - using sudo is quite straightforward, and as suggested
above, a root shell is obtainable using sudo -i  .

Peter