The "root" account is the most privileged account on a Unix system.
5
votes
3answers
5k views
Why is Debian's root shell colorless?
Are there any security concerns? What is the best way to enable it?
1
vote
2answers
26 views
Cannot remove /log/var/snort as root
I am using Ubuntu 11.10 Gnome.
I uninstalled snort in order to install a more recent version. The new installation initially failed because the system would not let be rm or modify /var/log/snort ...
1
vote
1answer
48 views
Privilege escalation detection?
I am not a linux/unix expert but everytime when I read about some local privilege escalation exploit (e.g. this),
I wonder if an OS can detect that there is someone logging in as root (or new root ...
-1
votes
1answer
34 views
disabling root permissions [closed]
From Linux From Scratch build a minimal system for running my application. but struck on disabling root permission.
Need my minimal lfs as ubuntu.
when ubuntu boots login-screen displays when we ...
1
vote
1answer
25 views
New Terminal not works when we use su root
When I use
su root
and then use
gnome-terminal
I get warning
** (gnome-terminal:2677): WARNING **: Failed to connect to the session manager: None of the authentication protocols specified ...
6
votes
1answer
156 views
Can I launch a process as root without launching root's login shell?
I tried to change the login shell.
Here's what the first line of /etc/passwd looks like (on a Debian Wheezy install):
rootx:0:0:root:/root:/:zsh
When I try to login as root:
Cannot execute zsh: ...
2
votes
3answers
373 views
Another account with same uid as root gets prompted to set new password for root, not itself
After upgrading the os from 5300-06 to 5300-11, this weird behaviour happened.
My system had another unix account, let's call it "abc", purposely configured its uid to 0 for working as a root with ...
0
votes
1answer
263 views
Is it possible to run vlc as root?
I installed vlc player using an old video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uql96eLe0w
I don't know how to access other users, but root itself only, so I don't know if the video is outdated or works at ...
6
votes
4answers
217 views
How do I stop the root user from deleting a file?
I'd like to know if I can prevent the root user from deleting a file.
Is it possible?
1
vote
1answer
29 views
Readonly in mounted partition's root
/etc/fstab
UUID=<someuuid> /mnt/data ext4 defaults,relatime,data=ordered 0 2
and
/mnt$ ll
drwxr-xr-x 2 manuel users 4096 15. Apr 18:25 data
/mnt$ mount -a
/mnt$ ll
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root ...
0
votes
1answer
48 views
Android - what's the permission difference on normal and rooted devices
I have two android phones, one rooted the other not. When I run following code without asking for root permission on the two phones,
system("echo \"abc\" > /data/a.txt\n");
the rooted phone ...
1
vote
1answer
103 views
Running rsh command under the root account
I have two machines running Solaris 9 (192.168.2.9) and Windows XP (192.168.2.5). I need to run the following command on the Windows machine:
rsh 192.168.2.9 -l root pwd
To be able to run this ...
1
vote
3answers
205 views
Using sudo in openSUSE without actually changing to root user (i.e., like in Ubuntu)
I recently started trying openSUSE 12.3 after having used Ubuntu for a few years. I'm still getting used to openSUSE's treatment of su (and sudo) vs. Ubuntu's use of sudo. I've been reading the ...
9
votes
4answers
730 views
Why doesn't “sudo su” in a shell script run the rest of the script as root?
A sample script can be as below:
#!/bin/bash
sudo su
ls /root
When using ./test.sh as the normal user, instead run ls as super user and exit, it switches to root; and when I logout, it executes ls ...
0
votes
2answers
1k views
ssh root@localhost error; help me hack this box :)
I need to gain a root shell on a linux vm for a security class. I have a user account on the system and a means to write to any file (i.e. /etc...) and want to escalate my privileges with:
ssh ...
10
votes
3answers
14k views
Can I change root's email address or forward all mail to an external address?
I'm getting a lot of mail in my root user's mail account. This appears to be mostly reports and errors from things like cron scripts. I'm trying to work though and solve these things, possibly even ...
3
votes
1answer
75 views
How does having /dev/fd make running shell scripts under sudo safe?
At the end of the man page for sudo, there's the following remark:
Running shell scripts via sudo can expose the same kernel bugs that
make setuid shell scripts unsafe on some operating systems ...
5
votes
1answer
178 views
Ubuntu: If anyone can get a root prompt without password, isn't that compromising the gnome keyring?
I've been looking for this for quite a while now but couldn't find a satisfying answer.
My scenario:
I'm using encfs to encrypt a few directories in my home folder. To make it easier to access I set ...
0
votes
3answers
98 views
What does sudo su work but su does not? [duplicate]
I have tried this on Fedora and on Ubuntu.
kshitiz@kshitiz:~$su
su: Authentication failure
kshitiz@kshitiz:~$sudo su
root@kshitiz:/home/kshitiz#
I am entering the same password in both the cases.
...
-1
votes
1answer
49 views
Disable “Priveleged user popup” in fedora 8
Problem Statement :- Automatic Login as "root" in fedora 8. I tried with "/etc/gdm/config..." file . (working in linux)
But in fedora 8 there is a pop up showing " ...
1
vote
1answer
159 views
How to suid iwconfig on Debian wheezy?
I have a script running under my own user account that takes care of all sorts of wireless interfaces. It (more or less) intelligently switches wireless LAN off and on and so forth. However, it does ...
10
votes
3answers
3k views
Can I launch a graphical program on another user's desktop as root?
Following are other questions which I think I need to know:
From a non X Session? (meaning root isn't logged into X)
If multiple people were logged in on X, could I auto-detect who was on which ...
4
votes
1answer
165 views
Mounting from dolphin vs commandline
I have been wondering how this is possible (i.e. how this works internally). When you want to mount a directory you have to be root.
sudo mount /dev/something /mnt/somedir
I know you can get around ...
2
votes
1answer
58 views
How to set up a script to run as root non-interactively?
I need to set up the following script to run as root whenever I log in:
#!/bin/zsh
truncate -s 0 ~yourstruly/.juniper_networks/network_connect/ncsvc.log
I know how to run the script as root ...
0
votes
2answers
127 views
Changing root password does not change sudo password
I'm trying to change the password that get's asked when doing sudo.
I'm in Ubuntu.
Doing 'sudo passwd' or 'sudo passwd root' does give me the two new password questions, and it successfully changes ...
1
vote
1answer
107 views
Setting the root password vs. sudo -i
Should one always set a root password, or is sudo -i acceptable? Two problems is in reading other posts (maybe junk I realize):
sudo -i eliminates the need for a password. Isn't that a problem for ...
2
votes
1answer
369 views
Email Sent via root@domain.com despite modifying /etc/aliases
First, here are the entries I added/modified in /etc/postfix/main.cf file:
mydomain = domain.com
myorigin = $mydomain
relayhost = email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com:25
smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
...
3
votes
1answer
92 views
Is there a way to find out how many instances of the root user are logged into a Linux machine?
We have a handful of users that login to our Linux virtual machine as root either through the vSphere client or through SSH and I want to see if there is a way to tell if multiple root users are ...
2
votes
1answer
109 views
How do I stop Apache from running as root?
New on the job, small place, and the security stuff just landed on my desk. I was hired to be a front-end developer. Happy to learn new things, but never had to do sysadmin stuff before.
I started ...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
Suddenly, I Can't login with correct password (greeter & tty)
This might be a duplicate of other password related questions but it's somehow eccentric.
I have 3 accounts in my Ubuntu 12.10 system (one standard and two administrators). One of the administrator ...
2
votes
3answers
68 views
How to prohibit from changing an owner of modifiable files?
I sometimes need to run a Qt Creator from root. After that, some config files of Qt Creator suddenly have a root as an owner. Therefore when running Qt Creator as user, I am getting nag warnings about ...
1
vote
3answers
137 views
Can a mounted encrypted filesystem be safe from root?
I have access to a shared remote computer from which I would like to run some code I have written which uses an interpreter (not a compiled code). I would like to protect this source code from other ...
0
votes
3answers
228 views
What is the function of user group root? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What does it mean to be in group 0?
I wanted to avoid using SSH root login to backup my remote server. Thus I set up a non-root user account on the server and place it ...
2
votes
3answers
197 views
How to start subsequent shells as root?
I run my local testing server inside a VM. I often have to open up multiple windows in it, and all have to be logged in root. Usually this is accomplished by writing su on every tab, a total of 7-8 ...
0
votes
0answers
43 views
Root user can't do everything? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Redirecting stdout to a file you don’t have write permission on
I'm quite new to Linux and I have a permissions questions. I'm using Linux Mint.
If I go to /opt and do ...
2
votes
2answers
73 views
Make a programme executable by common users
I've installed hddtemp on my Arch Linux, but it needs to be run with root permissions. I want to execute it as a normal user without using sudo. How can I do this?
2
votes
3answers
806 views
Run local scripts on multiple servers using sudo user through a script
I have about 100 remote servers. I want to manage all my servers using one terminal server to update , run commands with sudo privileges.
I need to have one main script that takes another test script ...
12
votes
4answers
3k views
How do you rename root?
Not that it's a very good idea to change it, but for fun. According to this post, there are still some problems even after changing entries in /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, and /etc/sudoers. Any ...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
How to have cron run a python script as root?
How can I get cron to run a python script as root? Here is my crontab file:
0 * * * * ./twitter/twitter.py
Am I doing something wrong?
0
votes
1answer
156 views
Root password keep changing
This is frustrating. I am often able to login with a root password. Then I cannot login again. However, I am still logged in. Hence my password must be correct.
I changed the root password with ...
0
votes
2answers
306 views
I think somebody tried to hack me
root@host [/var/log]# tail -f secure
Jan 3 20:16:10 host sshd[22670]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=61.142.131.120 user=root
Jan 3 20:16:12 ...
24
votes
5answers
6k views
How do I run a command as the system administrator (root)
I need to run a command with administrative privileges. Someone said I should run a command as root. How do I do this?
19
votes
2answers
878 views
How does the power button shut the computer down without root permission?
When I try to shutdown the computer from a command line or terminal I must have root privileges:
amy@amy:~$ shutdown now
shutdown: Need to be root
and
amy@amy:~$ halt
halt: Need to be root
but ...
1
vote
2answers
87 views
Problem accessing /home from different partition
I'm currently using Chakra on /sda1 and Fuduntu on /sda2 (a partition I keep for trying out and playing around with distros), and both systems use /sda3 for each different /home partition (I'll call ...
4
votes
1answer
562 views
How can I resize my root partition in Debian?
I am trying to add space to my root partition and am really not sure the safest way to go about it. I have read this thread, Can I resize the root partition without uninstalling and reinstalling ...
3
votes
2answers
268 views
Recommended way to login to root?
After I found out hundreds of hacking attempts are made in a day I decided I want to disable logging in to root remotely via a password. But then I found I can't switch users in WinSCP so I can't ...
1
vote
1answer
413 views
How to invoke root privileges from a password prompt of “Software Update” window?
When I try to install software updates using the "Software Update" GUI, I am asked for the root password. Although, I can 'su' in a terminal, the password is not recognized as correct in the GUI ...
1
vote
1answer
888 views
How to reset Linux root and grub passwords?
If we forget our Linux root password, we can change it by changing grub's boot options.
But in this case, we also set a grub password and forgot both passwords. How can we recover both?
6
votes
7answers
762 views
Negatives/downsides of Ubuntu's no-root sudo setup
By default, Ubuntu does not create a root account that the user can login to. Instead users use sudo when they need to perform actions that require administrative access.
Obviously, the people at ...
1
vote
3answers
323 views
Ask root for password when using su command
I'm trying to edit /etc/sudoers via visudo, but I don't know how to change the root rights.
I want root to be prompted for the user1's password, when he tries to use su user1.
