topic Can't su to root except from root in Operating System - Linux

Can't su to root except from root

Steve_615 — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 18:30:27 GMT

I can't su to root any longer from an average user id. However, it worked earlier today.
All userid's have valid pw's and accounts are not expired. I can su to root from root. All other ID's get "su: sorry" whenever trying to su to root or any other ID. After searching the forum. Pam.conf is good. There is not /etc/default/security file. The system is trusted. Not sure where to turn from here.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Re: Can't su to root except from root

Stuart Browne — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 18:53:32 GMT

Can you please copy/paste the enture 'su' conversation from your shell, so we can see what you're issuing, and exactally how the error appears?

Re: Can't su to root except from root

Stuart Browne — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 18:58:14 GMT

Hrm.. but short there..

Also.. what log entires are made in '/var/log/messages' when you attempt to 'su'?

You say 'pam.conf'. What distribution are you using? In most modern distributions, the file you should be looking at is '/etc/pam.d/su'. Paste the contents of that file here too please.

Re: Can't su to root except from root

Steven E. Protter — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 23:13:22 GMT

hmm /etc/default/security

That sounds like an hpux system?!

Am I right?

If so run the following commands as root.

pwck

grpck

If you have root login at all.

You may need to boot single user to get back to root control.

It would appear that you may have a corrupt /etc/passwd or /etc/group file

Or that I have totally misdiagnosed this call and should be whacked around a few times.

SEP

Re: Can't su to root except from root

Gopi Sekar — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 00:15:36 GMT

if this is a linux box then check /etc/pam.d/su file and see whether the following line is uncommented, if so comment it back.

#auth required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_wheel.so use_uid

also it would be better if you give the exact command line and exit status (check $?) also the contents of /var/log/messages and /var/log/secure

Regards,
Gopi

Re: Can't su to root except from root

Gopi Sekar — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 01:16:46 GMT

Found this link, see whether it is of help to you:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=907929

Hope this helps,
Gopi

Re: Can't su to root except from root

Bejoy C Alias — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 02:08:46 GMT

Dear Steve,
if the following line is not commented out then only the users in wheel group are allowed to do su.
auth required /lib/security/pam_wheel.so use_uid
So check this in the file /etc/pam.d/su.