Root user permission

[Art Edwards]

Peter Garrett wrote:
> 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
> 

Of course you are right about the admin group, and about it being a bad
idea to make yourself part of the sudo group. I apologize for leaving a
half-baked answer. Thanks for correcting this. My original post was only
to point out that making a root account is straightforward, not
necessarily recommended.