add user to root group

BroX · 01-07-2005, 09:26 AM

Hey all,

I hate it that as a user I am not allowed (on my own pc) to ls or cat a file. Does adding myself as a user to the root group solve this? Before I never had this kind of behaviour, and I suspect it was because after the install and creating a new user, I added the user to the root group.

Second question (why I don't just go ahead and do it) is, is there a security risk in doing this? FYI, I am connected to the net.

Cheers, Leon.

Proud · 01-07-2005, 09:58 AM

Couldn't you just change permissions on ls and cat so they're world executable?

XavierP · 01-07-2005, 10:05 AM

Or use sudo?

SlackerLX · 01-07-2005, 10:19 AM

Securitywise adding your user to root is not recommended.

BroX · 01-07-2005, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Proud
Couldn't you just change permissions on ls and cat so they're world executable?

Yeah I guess that's a better option

Thanks for the all the input!

Nice weekend all!

Cheers, Leon.

Proud · 01-07-2005, 10:55 AM

I'd have to say sudo is probably the most secure route. You wannt restrict access as much as possible, and only open up permission for things to trusted users. So sudo would allow you to enable those commands for your user account only, rather than making them world accessable.

BroX · 01-07-2005, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Proud
I'd have to say sudo is probably the most secure route.

Thanx, that's what I'll do then. Never used sudo, but I often read it comes in handy. Next is 'man sudo' ;-)

Cheers, Leon.

titanium_geek · 01-07-2005, 11:10 AM

basically you just type

Code:

su
Password: type root password

and then you have root privileges untill you type exit

titanium_geek

EDIT looks like sudo and su are different

... I always assumed they were the same, but non linux expert here!