User Privileges on Programs

zach8202 · 03-29-2007, 10:19 AM

Hey everyone
Ok, So I've just setup a SUSE 9 Linux box. I want to run the program Ethereal to keep an eye on traffic coming in. When I am logged in as a user it says I don't have permission (it obviously works fine when I'm root). (I'm also kind of new to Linux FYI). I've played around with sudoers but wasn't totally sure what I was doing.

So basically, my question is: Does anyone know how to grant access for a user to specifically one program?
Thanks! Zach

tytower · 03-29-2007, 09:54 PM

I dont but I started looking-does Yast / AppArmour have any use here?

jschiwal · 03-30-2007, 05:07 AM

Use the "visudo" program to configure the /etc/sudoers sudo configuration file. It is well commented, and there are a couple of commented examples you can use as a template:

Code:

# Samples
# %users  ALL=/sbin/mount /cdrom,/sbin/umount /cdrom
# %users  localhost=/sbin/shutdown -h now

The sudoers file has its own manpage.

auxsvr · 03-30-2007, 07:01 AM

If you want to run ethereal with root privileges automatically, without a password prompt, you need to set it setuid root, i.e.

Code:

chmod u+s `which wireshark`

or

Code:

chmod u+s `which ethereal`

, depending on whether you use a recent version. You may also need to add the line

Code:

/usr/bin/wireshark root:root 4755

or

Code:

/usr/bin/ethereal root:root 4755

in /etc/permissions.local, to avoid the permissions be reset when suseconfig runs.

Be warned that this may pose a security threat, if someone logs in to your system and finds a way to exploit this.