NAME

       sudo_root - How to run administrative commands

SYNOPSIS

       sudo command

       sudo -i

INTRODUCTION

       By  default, the password for the user "root" (the system administrator) is locked. This means you cannot
       login as root or use su. Instead, the installer will set up sudo to allow the user that is created during
       install to run all administrative commands.

       This means that in the terminal you can use sudo for commands that require root privileges. All  programs
       in  the  menu will use a graphical sudo to prompt for a password. When sudo asks for a password, it needs
       your password, this means that a root password is not needed.

       To run a command which requires root privileges in a terminal, simply prepend sudo in front of it. To get
       an interactive root shell, use sudo -i.

ALLOWING OTHER USERS TO RUN SUDO

       By default, only the user who installed the system is permitted to run sudo. To add more  administrators,
       i.  e.  users  who  can  run  sudo,  you  have to add these users to the group 'sudo' by doing one of the
       following steps:

       * In a shell, do

           sudo adduser username sudo

       * Use the graphical "Users & Groups" program in the "System settings" menu to add the  new  user  to  the
         sudo group.

BENEFITS OF USING SUDO

       The benefits of leaving root disabled by default include the following:

       * Users do not have to remember an extra password, which they are likely to forget.

       * The installer is able to ask fewer questions.

       * It  avoids  the  "I can do anything" interactive login by default - you will be prompted for a password
         before major changes can happen, which should make you think about the consequences  of  what  you  are
         doing.

       * Sudo adds a log entry of the command(s) run (in /var/log/auth.log).

       * Every attacker trying to brute-force their way into your box will know it has an account named root and
         will try that first. What they do not know is what the usernames of your other users are.

       * Allows  easy  transfer  for  admin  rights, in a short term or long term period, by adding and removing
         users from the sudo group, while not compromising the root account.

       * sudo can be set up with a much more fine-grained security policy.

       * On systems with more than one administrator using sudo avoids sharing a password amongst them.

DOWNSIDES OF USING SUDO

       Although for desktops the benefits of using sudo are great, there are possible issues which  need  to  be
       noted:

       * Redirecting the output of commands run with sudo can be confusing at first. For instance consider

           sudo ls > /root/somefile

         will not work since it is the shell that tries to write to that file. You can use

           ls | sudo tee /root/somefile

         to get the behaviour you want.

       * In  a  lot of office environments the ONLY local user on a system is root. All other users are imported
         using NSS techniques such as nss-ldap. To setup a workstation, or fix it, in  the  case  of  a  network
         failure  where  nss-ldap is broken, root is required. This tends to leave the system unusable. An extra
         local user, or an enabled root password is needed here.

GOING BACK TO A TRADITIONAL ROOT ACCOUNT

       This is not recommended!

       To enable the root account (i.e. set a password) use:

           sudo passwd root

       Afterwards, edit the sudo configuration with sudo visudo and comment out the line

           %sudo  ALL=(ALL) ALL

       to disable sudo access to members of the sudo group.

SEE ALSO

       sudo(8), https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RootSudo

                                                February 8, 2006                                    sudo_root(8)