topic Re: /etc/default/security file entries in Operating System - HP-UX

/etc/default/security file entries

john guardian — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 19:18:20 GMT

One of the junior admins asked earlier today about the following line:

SU_ROOT_GROUP=wheel

Apparently, the actual line in the file was:

SU_ROOT_GROUP="wheel"

I did not see anything specific in the security man page that documents whether or not a STRING vs a NUMERIC value can/cannot be enclosed w/quotes. He stated it would not do what was intended when enclosed by quotes. I haven't seen issues one way or the other. Has anyone else encountered this issue? Or can anyone say, with authority, that this should not matter?

Thx.

Re: /etc/default/security file entries

Dennis Handly — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 08:50:43 GMT

>I did not see anything specific in the security man page that documents whether or not a STRING vs a NUMERIC value can/cannot be enclosed w/quotes.

If it doesn't say it, it probably means it's not allowed. I see nothing in security(4) that allows spaces so no quotes are needed.

Re: /etc/default/security file entries

Patrick Wallek — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 14:59:45 GMT

I just set the following entry in /etc/default/security on an 11.23 system:

SU_ROOT_GROUP="wheel"

I then tried to su to root from a user that is part of the wheel group and got the following error:

sg1 blh home/blh $ su -
System Password:
su: Bad SU_ROOT_GROUP entry in /etc/default/security

So apparently quotes are not allowed. It worked fine without the quotes around wheel.