[plug] Interesting command that may make root access more fun ..

[William Kenworthy]

Obviously you should all have your system admin licences stamped
"invalid", or "for Windows use only" :)

You need to edit sudo.conf (visudo if you have it) and remove the
offending lines or set it up properly.  There must be some wildcard
match in there that needs removing.  Could you all be using the same
distro with an unsafe default setup?

By the way, none of my (gentoo) systems do this.

wdk at rattus ~ $ sudo su
Password:
Harm can come to a young lad like that!
Password:
Sorry, user wdk is not allowed to execute '/bin/su' as root on rattus.
wdk at rattus ~ $ 

This user (wdk=me) does have sudo access to specific commands and
sometimes with argument limits, and also belongs to the wheel group
(which allows access to su in the first place) As su isnt in the allowed
list, it errors off with a helpful message in the log that someone is
trying to be naughty ...

Be interested in knowing which distros allow this, and the reasoning
behind it?

BillK

On Fri, 2007-05-25 at 13:17 +0100, Phillip Bennett wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Richard Meyer" <meyerri at westnet.com.au>
> To: "PLUG" <plug at plug.org.au>
> Sent: Friday, May 25, 2007 11:48 AM
> Subject: [plug] Interesting command that may make root access more fun ..
> 
> 
> > Sorry I didn't know exactly how to word the subject line, but my son
> > came up with something interesting that gets him root login without the
> > root password. He has to have sudo access and then types (at a console)
> > "sudo su" and there he is in all his glory.
> >
> > Interesting way to make yourself root permanently without the password.
> > Trust a 15-year-old to come up with something like that.
> >
> >
> > -- 
> > Richard Meyer <meyerri at westnet.com.au>
> > Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
> > It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
> > William Pitt, 1783
> >
> > Linux Counter user #306629
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > PLUG discussion list: plug at plug.org.au
> > http://www.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
> > Committee e-mail: committee at plug.linux.org.au
> >
> That's actually a really good one if you happen to forget the root password. 
> I have used this one a couple of times on boxes I haven't accessed for a 
> long time. :)
> 
> Phil. 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> PLUG discussion list: plug at plug.org.au
> http://www.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
> Committee e-mail: committee at plug.linux.org.au
-- 
William Kenworthy <billk at iinet.net.au>
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