On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 12:07:18 -0600 (CST), Mike Miller <mbmiller at taxa.epi.umn.edu> wrote: > How does sudo hurt security? Is it because it can allow a user to become > root without a password? That does seem like a bad idea for several > reasons that I will not go into. My question: Is it possible to > configure sudo so that a password is always required? That would be my > preferred way of using it. It would be best for me if different users > could have different passwords for accessing root permissions. Does sudo > allow that? Yes. When a user does something via sudo, it operates in one of several ways: first, it can prompt for the user's password every time sudo is invoked; second, it can prompt for the user's password every time unless it's been prompted in X minutes previously (default is 5 minutes, IIRC); third, it can just let the command run, without prompting for any password. In any case, if prompted, sudo is asking for the invoker's password, never the root password. # visudo or $ sudo visudo Combined with ? man visudo WRT to locking sudo down, I'd give you a better answer, but I myself haven't delved into using the language used in /etc/sudoers. But from the security side of things, root should not be allowed to run sudo, else you can chain sudo commands to get a root shell (a la 'sudo sudo /bin/bash'). You can (and should) also disable su from execution, else you can just 'sudo su'. I'm sure there's much more, and I know enough to say you can get more granular. Denying 'sudo passwd' would be a good one to deny, as well... Hope some of this helps. _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list