why have programs like su access to /etc/shadow

Question

Normally only root can access /etc/shadow. But programs like su and sudo can check passwords without running as root. So the question is: Why can these programs access /etc/shadow without privileges? I tried to access it without privileges via python with the spwd module, but I didn't get access (like expected). Which mechanism do these programs use?

Answer 1

why have programs like su access to /etc/shadow

Because programs like su and passwd have set SetUID. You can check by using :

[root@tpserver tmp]#  ls -l /usr/bin/passwd
-r-s--x--x  1 root root 21200 Aug 22  2013 /usr/bin/passwd

When you look around in your file permission you will see "s". If anybody is trying to run the passwd program, by default it's taking the privilege of owner (root here) of the file. This means any user can get root privilege to execute the passwd program, because only the root user can edit or update /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow file. Other users cant. When the normal user runs the passwd program on his terminal, the passwd program is run as "root", because the effective UID is set to "root". So the normal user can easily update the file.

You can use the chmod command with the u+s or g+s arguments to set the setuid and setgid bits on an executable file, respectively

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Long Answer : Set-User_Id (SUID): Power for a Moment:

By default, when a user executes a file, the process which results in this execution has the same permissions as those of the user. In fact, the process inherits his default group and user identification.

If you set the SUID attribute on an executable file, the process resulting in its execution doesn't use the user's identification but the user identification of the file owner.

The SUID mechanism, invented by Dennis Ritchie, is a potential security hazard. It lets a user acquire hidden powers by running such a file owned by root.

$ ls -l /etc/passwd /etc/shadow /usr/bin/passwd
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2232 Mar 15 00:26 /etc/passwd
-r-------- 1 root root 1447 Mar 19 19:01 /etc/shadow

The listing shows that passwd is readable by all, but shadow is unreadable by group and others. When a user running the program belongs to one of these two categories (probably, others), so access fails in the read test on shadow. Suppose normal user wants to change his password. How can he do that? He can do that by running /usr/bin/passwd. Many UNIX/Linux programs have a special permission mode that lets users update sensitive system files –like /etc/shadow --something they can't do directly with an editor. This is true of the passwd program.

$ ls -l /usr/bin/passwd
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 22984 Jan 6 2007 /usr/bin/passwd

The s letter in the user category of the permission field represents a special mode known as the set-user-id (SUID). This mode lets a process have the privileges of the owner of the file during the instance of the program. Thus when a non privileged user executes passwd, the effective UID of the process is not the user's, but of root's – the owner of the program. This SUID privilege is then used by passwd to edit /etc/shadow.

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