Vote for new Ubuntu Feature

[Jeffrey F. Bloss]

alex wrote:

> mtyoung wrote:
> 
> >Not being able to login as root user in Ubuntu is a pain.
> >
> >The feature I propose is that every time Ubuntu won't let you do 
> >something because you're not the root user or owner of something, it 
> >should give you the opportunity to enter your password.
> >
> >Some features do that now. Make it universal.
> >
> >
> >
> >  
> >
> Addressing the problem of editing and then saving changes to an 
> unsavable menu.list, change its permissions before attempting to do
> the save, thusly
> 
> sudo chmod go+rw /boot/grub/menu.list
> (If asked for a password, enter your user password).

No. If you're going to do this then just use sudo/gksudo to start an
editor with admin privileges. Changing permissions is a BadThing(tm)
for a couple reasons which include forgetting to change them back or
changing them improperly and leaving a huge security hole, a
considerable amount of software which refuses to run if it sees this
sort of change, and various system integrity checking softwares that
will see such things as an attack.  

I actually shudder to think of a system where a world writable grub
configuration file allowed anyone and everyone to install whatever evil
kernel they pleased. And if grub is one of those self-checkers (??)
misapplying attributes could leave your machine ususable until you
booted from suitable media, gained root, and fixed it. :(

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