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Got Root - Should You Use It?
vegthura asks: "I have several coworkers that insist that logging into servers is an acceptable practice. They claim it's just easier than using sudo and it's just as safe - you know you're root so what else do you need? And why bother logging in as you if you're just going to use sudo to run commands with root privileges anyway? Everything I've ever read has been the exact opposite philosophy. There is very little you need to be root to do, if anything in practice, and using sudo lets you only use the power of root for when you really need it. So, die hard unix geeks, you've got root... do you use it or stick to sudo?"
I personally stick to sudo. The main reason why is to protect me from myself, more than anyone. Because I have to prefix the command with sudo, it serves as a 'mental brake' to slow down my typing, and double check what I type before I run it.
Given rich ACLs, there is really very little that needs to be done as root. However, when root is needed, it is important to remember that there is only one root. On a machine with multiple admins, how do you tell who logged in as root? The sudo log entry tells all:
/var/log/auth.log
Apr 15 22:05:41 linux-black sudo: matt : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/home/matt ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/tail
sudo is valuable if only for the logging. Yes, you can limit what can be done using the sudoers file, but logging who did what is invaluable.
10b||~10b -- aah, what a question!
> Compare this with giving the root password to everyone, which requires the password to be changed whenever someone leaves the company (or someone's root privs are revoked).
Create multiple UID 0 accounts with different passwords.
As for the rest of your post, I'd rather not trust the security of a server to sudo, firstly because it had security issues in the past, and secondly because it's not a trivial task to decide which commands a user can and can not have access to.
Sudo adds complexity where you least want to have it. A config file that you can mess up? No thanks.
Plain old su works well. It leaves a log, via the shell history file. You can adjust the history file size if needed. If you want a secure and uneditable log, neither will do. Breaking out of sudo is easy; normal command-line software is not designed to keep you in the setuid-like environment that sudo provides. Regular old apps will have buffer overflows, which are not considered security holes... until you go making the apps setuid or - equivalently - letting them be run via sudo.
If you'd be tempted to leave yourself su to root, first open a second window. Now you have one window for root-only stuff, and one window for everything else. Change the font or color or window title if you need help remembering.
Congratulations. You have now completely removed almost every reason for using sudo in the first place.
If all you use sudo for is starting a root shell once you've logged in, then save yourself the hassle and just login as root, because you're circumventing basically every benefit sudo offers.