topic Re: Dividing up the Power of SU in Operating System - Linux

Dividing up the Power of SU

John D Wood — Wed, 03 Oct 2001 16:48:00 GMT

I just starting a greenfield implementation of 10 Linux Servers and 300 Windows PC's on the Desktop. Are there any commercial or OpenSource products that can sub-divide the authority of SU without altering the kernel?

Re: Dividing up the Power of SU

Bernie Vande Griend — Wed, 03 Oct 2001 20:16:58 GMT

Sudo is a OpenSource program that can divide up root (superuser) authority to other users.

PowerBroker is Commercial product that can also give users root authority as well as many other features. It does not change the kernel.

Neither program actually limits the root user account though, that account remains the same. These products just give other accounts access to root programs so that superuser/root account does not have to be used very often or only in emergencies. I think this method makes more sense as it does not change the kernel or actual architecture of the system.

The only product I know that actually limits or changes superuser account is AccessControl from Computer Associates, but it does change the kernel.

T

Re: Dividing up the Power of SU

Albert E. Whale, CISSP — Thu, 04 Oct 2001 19:00:40 GMT

It sounds like you want a package like sudo in order to grant users root access to various aspects.

I'm glad that you are looking to avoid kernel changes. With as fast a the Linux Kernel Group is advancing, I'm not sure there are many company's geared to run on the 2.4.7 kernels yet.

HTH.