[SOLVED] Add existing user to Sudoers

AndyAjram · 08-22-2019, 09:43 AM

Hello everyone,

I have a user that can do root actions , and I want to add an other existing user to the sudoers group , but when I try

Code:

sudo usermod -a -G sudo eibusrpp

I get usermod: group 'sudo' does not exist

what is the solution ?

Thanks in Advance

BW-userx · 08-22-2019, 09:53 AM

Code:

cat /etc/group

look at your groups, --> wheel if you go that add use to that group.
id yourself to see if you got wheel that too is a sudoers group, check your sudoers file for the wheel setting. admin stuff you need to do to confirm your questions on whos sudo group am I using?

TenTenths · 08-22-2019, 09:54 AM

Nothing to do with groups, everything to do with:

Code:

/etc/sudoers

Try reading that file and:

Code:

man sudoers
man visudo

AndyAjram · 08-22-2019, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BW-userx

Code:

cat /etc/group

look at your groups, --> wheel if you go that add use to that group.
id yourself to see if you got wheel that too is a sudoers group, check your sudoers file for the wheel setting. admin stuff you need to do to confirm your questions on whos sudo group am I using?

Wheel exist in the file group with wheel:x:10:

Turbocapitalist · 08-22-2019, 10:05 AM

Which individual command or commands do you wish to grant privileges for to the new account? sudo can be configured with great detail, if it is done right.

AndyAjram · 08-22-2019, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turbocapitalist

Which individual command or commands do you wish to grant privileges for to the new account? sudo can be configured with great detail, if it is done right.

I want to give it the root access , all privileges must be granted to this user

BW-userx · 08-22-2019, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TenTenths

Nothing to do with groups, everything to do with:

Code:

/etc/sudoers

Try reading that file and:

Code:

man sudoers
man visudo

yes it does, you need a group to be attached to to get general sudo privs period. wheel or sudo if you want to play customized sudoers config fine, but for most users it is just the means to attach a user to the group, wheel or sudo and have the permissions to that group set.

Code:

root ALL=(ALL) ALL

## Uncomment to allow members of group wheel to execute any command
# %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

## Same thing without a password
 %wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

## Uncomment to allow members of group sudo to execute any command
# %sudo	ALL=(ALL) ALL

notice the two groups mentioned in sudoers conf, wheel sudo

that too is why I told OP to check his id and the sudoer config file to put two and two together. Whence he figures out what he has to get sudo privs then he can mimic that for the other, anything more then he too can ask, or look into it.

AndyAjram · 08-22-2019, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BW-userx

yes it does, you need a group to be attached to to get general sudo privs period. wheel or sudo if you want to play customized sudoers config fine, but for most users it is just the means to attach a user to the group, wheel or sudo and have the permissions to that group set.

Code:

root ALL=(ALL) ALL

## Uncomment to allow members of group wheel to execute any command
# %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

## Same thing without a password
 %wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

## Uncomment to allow members of group sudo to execute any command
# %sudo	ALL=(ALL) ALL

notice the two groups mentioned in sudoers conf, wheel sudo

I don't understand you , I'm not familiar with linux , so can you be more explicit

BW-userx · 08-22-2019, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndyAjram

I don't understand you , I'm not familiar with linux , so can you be more explicit

read up on sudo to get a basic understanding of it. id yourself

Code:

$ id
uid=1000(userx) gid=1000(userx) groups=1000(userx),0(wheel),5(operator),44(video)

to see what group you're in for sudo. sudo nano /etc/sudoers or just nano /etc/sudoers so changes cannot take place, and take a look through it. mostly on the bottom to see how to give a user attached to the group wheel or sudo root privs.

so you need to find out what group is being used, what is your group, or are you logged in as root? what distro are you using too is a big thing. some use sudo and others use wheel. you can give a user rights in the sudoers file for specific commands, but again go back to read up on sudo how to's to get yourself more understanding of sudo.

if this is just a general give user root privs then find the group your system is using to do so, then use that one.

Because if you already have sudo and it works with your user then your sudoers file is already setup for additional user to be put in that group for the same privileges.

TenTenths · 08-22-2019, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BW-userx

you need a group to be attached to to get general sudo privs period.

Wrong, privs can be assigned at individual user levels in /etc/sudoers, no group necessary.

Directly assigning individual users makes it easier to see in the file who can do what.

But hey, not getting in to a "measuring contest" here so whatever.

BW-userx · 08-22-2019, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TenTenths

Wrong, privs can be assigned at individual user levels in /etc/sudoers, no group necessary.

Directly assigning individual users makes it easier to see in the file who can do what.

But hey, not getting in to a "measuring contest" here so whatever.

I was speaking in general terms . as you should know that one attached to wheel, or sudo gets root privileges, depending on what system they are using, even though you're speaking in specific commands root privileges need to be had to run.

jsbjsb001 · 08-22-2019, 10:48 AM

It would help if you say which distribution you want to do this in. Given you're using the usermod command; am I right in assuming this user you wish to give sudo rights to already exists on your system?

Because it depends on the distribution concerned as to which user group is configured in /etc/sudoers From my searches, in Ubuntu it's the "sudo" group that you need to add the user to, that you wish to give sudo rights to. In other distributions it might be the "wheel" group, like in the distribution I'm using. Although, you can change which group has sudo rights in the /etc/sudoers file (you can use any text editor to edit that file - it doesn't matter what text editor you use).

DavidMcCann · 08-22-2019, 10:54 AM

As has been said, you need to edit suduers. Read all about it here
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sudo

The point about the command visudo is that it checks your edit before saving: if you seem to have made a mistake it asks you if you want to try again, save and risk it, or give up! Normally it uses vi as an editor. If you want to avoid that, use the command
export EDITOR=nano
(or whatever you want to use as the editor). I always put that in my .bashrc file.

AndyAjram · 08-22-2019, 11:09 AM

I did it , I added my user to the sudoers file and now it has the root privilege

thank you all