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Sudo vs. Root

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the security-comes-first dept.

lessthan0 writes "In Mac OS X, the root account is disabled by default. The first user account created is added to the admin group and that user can use the sudo command to execute other commands as root. The conventional wisdom is that sudo is the most secure way to run root commands, but a closer look reveals a picture that is not so clear." The article is about OSX but the debate is a little older ;)

1 of 327 comments (clear)

  1. Good Advice by Se7enLC · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This article is good advice for anyone running a unix-like operating system (OSX, Linux, etc). It's not knocking on OSX, just knocking on the default configuration. Sudo is really just a way to allow root access without allowing root logins. The best way to configure it: Root Account with a unique password (not the same as your user account) Sudo requires password to activate (caching is ok, but no automatic access, no keys) Sudo logs all commands Sudo only enabled for specific user accounts Root account has login disabled, ftp/ssh disabled. (using the /usr/bin/false trick mentioned in the article, I use true myself)