[SOLVED] Sudo vs Root Login

Tonus · 12-29-2022, 05:04 PM

Quote:

On ubuntu it is not possible to login to the root account.

Last time I tried this worked :

Code:

sudo su
passwd
exit
su -
input password defined 3 steps above

enorbet · 12-29-2022, 06:50 PM

Maybe it's primarily because my first GUI was DOS PCTools PCShell and Midnight Commander but I am heavily reliant on working from a File Manager in addition to from CLI. In Slackware that means I must "kdesu dolphin" a LOT because, unlike other distros that are serious enough to create a root account by default, for some reason with those, launching just "dolphin" as User, any action requiring root access immediately triggers a root password query. Perhaps I'm missing some config variable that is default in others but it is a bit of a PITA.

henca · 12-30-2022, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tonus

Last time I tried this worked :

Code:

sudo su
passwd
exit
su -
input password defined 3 steps above

Sorry, I should have written "not possible by default".

regards Henrik

arfon · 12-31-2022, 06:19 AM

Quote:

For home users doing system maintainence, is it safer to use sudo or log-in as root? I have read it is better to use sudo.

I don't like sudo...

It is safer [than using the root account] if you actually limit what programs you can run with it. ---BUT--- Every "home" user that I know just sets sudo permissions to ALL (which defeats the purpose).

I prefer to use root account because it's one more login, one more password to thwart intrusion. I disable ssh-root login and if someone gets my password they can't do much system damage unless they also get root's password too.

Raspbian's, Mint's, Ubuntu's, etctera's use of sudo is just plain crazy. Allowing a user total access to the system is the same as using the root account (security wise).

hitest · 12-31-2022, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arfon

I don't like sudo...

It is safer [than using the root account] if you actually limit what programs you can run with it. ---BUT--- Every "home" user that I know just sets sudo permissions to ALL (which defeats the purpose).

Agreed. As the system administrator you trust yourself to safely execute commands on your system. Maybe you have another user (a family member) that has log-in access to your system. Limiting what they can do is a good idea. You don't give them the root password and you set-up sudo so they can do only what you want with their user password. Here's a few tutorials on how to do that.

Mini tutorial : Restricting sudo users to only a handful commands

Enabling Sudo on Slackware

Quote:

Originally Posted by arfon

Raspbian's, Mint's, Ubuntu's, etctera's use of sudo is just plain crazy. Allowing a user total access to the system is the same as using the root account (security wise).

I agree, that's bonkers.

luvr · 01-01-2023, 12:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hitest

Yes. Also as the system administrator you can configure sudo so that a user can only execute a defined set of root commands, that is, they can only do things that you allow them to do. This would be valuable if you have multiple users using the same box. There may be some users that you don't want to have full system access.

While that is absolutely true, you will have to be careful to prevent them running any commands from which they can subsequently run a command-line shell, since they can then run any command from that shell. That would entirely defeat the purpose.

hitest · 01-01-2023, 09:06 AM

One of my favorite authors, Michael Lucas, gives a great talk on sudo.

Sudo: You're doing it wrong