Quote:
Originally Posted by rpindy
Any ideas?
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Your question is unclear, but it appears you are assuming that the root password is required for both
su(1) &
sudo(8). This isn't necessarily true.
The problem with
su(1) is that one either knows the root password or one doesn't, & if one knows the root password, they have
complete control over the system. The privilege separation implemented by the system is absolutely defeated.
The purpose of
sudo(8) is to implement a configurable privilege policy which can be partial.
su(1) cannot do this.
sudo(8) roles can be established which may grant
some privileges of root, but not necessarily all.
sudo(8) can also grant root privileges by command. Likewise, the root password doesn't have to be shared since
sudo(8) expects the user to enter their own non-privileged account password.
In this manner,
sudo(8) has finer control & granularity over sharing root's control all without sharing root's password.
Note that
sudo(8) is not configured by default.
visudo(8) is used to edit the local
sudo(8) policy. The default policy will not grant any root privileges to non-privileged users irregardless of whether the root password or non-privileged password(s) are used.
If you are looking for more information on
sudo(8), study the manpage & the project's Webpage:
http://www.gratisoft.us/sudo/
Also note that
sudo(8)'s current author is also an OpenBSD developer.