Passord and user questions?

chrisretusn · 03-10-2011, 07:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by M$ISBS

Back to my original problem....

When I first startup Ubuntu I enter my password and I log in, but when I need to do something that requires root priveledges I enter the same password and am given access.

Something doesnt seem right with this?

That is by design and the beauty of sudo. It allows root privileges without having to know roots password.

M$ISBS · 03-10-2011, 06:05 PM

So when I enter my password, it is letting me act as root temporarily because my password is stored somewhere that says its ok for me to do a task that only root can do?

and that means that there really is no root password on this system since I never was prompted to create one?

chrisretusn · 03-11-2011, 12:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by M$ISBS

So when I enter my password, it is letting me act as root temporarily because my password is stored somewhere that says its ok for me to do a task that only root can do?

In a nut shell yes.

The reason you can use sudo in your access is because of this entry in the /etc/sudoers file and specifically this entry at the bottom:
%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL

The user you created during the install is a member of the admin group. This is done with the first user created during the install only. Other users added later are not placed in the admin group.

Quote:

and that means that there really is no root password on this system since I never was prompted to create one?

Yes. This is also why you cannot log in to root; no password. If you really want to log in to root, simply give root a password.

You can see this if you enter:

~$ sudo cat /etc/shadow

At the top for root you will see a "!" were an encrypted password should be. Near the bottom you will see your user name and your encrypted password.