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Wee it seems that sudoers file is used only to gain access to some commands. but it cannot be used to give permission to a user to modify the contents of a file
Wee it seems that sudoers file is used only to gain access to some commands. but it cannot be used to give permission to a user to modify the contents of a file
Right...so why can't you do what you want, since you just (essentially) said that sudo can do it?
Give ONE user permission to use ONE command. That command can be "vi <some file name>". Change the ownership of the file to only allow root to access it, so then either root or that one user (via "sudo vi <some file name>") can edit it.
I think I'd have changed the group or owner to this user so that they could do some task before I gave them sudo.
That's another way to do it, which will work just fine, too. However, I tend to lean towards sudo for things just like this, mainly because of the auditing purposes. A user can modify/delete their shell history, but (if you only give them sudo rights for ONE COMMAND), can't edit the sudo logs, and you can see what they did, and when.
The same thing can be accomplished either way, though, but the OP did ask about sudo specifically.
Unfortunately, tools like vi enable you to escape to the shell, then all bets are off ...
I'd go with user or group ownership & set the perms as needed or (more fine-grained) use an ACL.
Unfortunately, tools like vi enable you to escape to the shell, then all bets are off ...
I'd go with user or group ownership & set the perms as needed or (more fine-grained) use an ACL.
That is a good point, but:
Quote:
Originally Posted by TB0ne
if you only give them sudo rights for ONE COMMAND
Don't give them a command that will let them escape to the shell. Be careful, but if you know what you're doing, you won't have that problem.
I want to set something in sudoers file so that a user "somename" have full privilege to it.
Need the OP to define 'full privilege'.
In any case my point stand; sudo is designed to control what cmds/tools you can run.
It cannot protect files and many cmds have a way to break out into the shell, even if its just ctrl-C or similar.
See the Security Notes here http://linux.die.net/man/8/sudo
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