sudo (was Re: basic - continued)

[Smoot Carl-Mitchell]

On Sat, 2010-02-06 at 16:02 +0000, Graham Todd wrote:

> Of course, if you do enter the superuser account, by setting a password
> for it for example, you run the risk of getting rootkits installed,
> which is the reason I believe all systems should have effective rootkit
> cleaners installed by default.  But if you use only sudo to access root
> privileges isn't the danger from rootkits (and their kin) vastly
> reduced?
> 
> Am I incorrect?  Is the danger with sudo as great, or is sudo a barrier?

sudoing to root gives you all the same privileges as logging in as root.
It is only a barrier if used prudently.  Any program run with root
privileges can gain access to the entire system.


-- 
Smoot Carl-Mitchell
Computer Systems and
Network Consultant
smoot at tic.com
+1 480 922 7313
cell: +1 602 421 9005