nanog mailing list archives

Re: Security Practices question


From: Scott Francis <darkuncle () darkuncle net>
Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2002 11:46:53 -0700

On Wed, Oct 02, 2002 at 11:34:38AM -0700, darkuncle () darkuncle net said:
[snip]
This is a really /really/ REALLY bad idea. I had nightmare issues dealing
with a network formerly run by a 'sysadmin' who thought every user that 
might need to do something as root should have a uidzero account.

That's not the issue, however.

The assumption is that you have several people who really are fully
qualified admins on the system in question, who really do need full
privileged access.  The choice John describes is between giving these
trusted sysadmins the password for "root", or giving them (and them
alone) a UID 0 account as he describes (except that one would of course 
use shadow passwords etc.)

Wrong. The choice is between having a single password for the user with id 0,
and having multiple passwords for that same account. This is an abysmally bad
idea, and shame on anybody encouraging it. See 

(mail client sent message while I was editing it; full reply on its way.)
-- 
-= Scott Francis || darkuncle (at) darkuncle (dot) net =-
  GPG key CB33CCA7 has been revoked; I am now 5537F527
        illum oportet crescere me autem minui

Attachment: _bin
Description:


Current thread: