Root user is unable to su without supplying password

[Becke]

Hi Guys,

I have enabled trusted ie 'tcb' on the machine and now when I try to su from root user to a normal user it prompts for user's password.

I think root need to be a trusted user so it can su to anyone's account without supplying a password.

Can anyone advice how to resolve this problem so a root user can su to any user's account without supplying a password....

Thanks in Advance.

Raf

[LoC_1 · Accepted solution]

Hi
What version of os are you running?

Trusted systems and untrusted systems should behave identically with respect to prompting root for a password.

See details below


su from normal user to root
If the uid of the normal user is anything but 0, then su to root will always prompt for a password. The only method for avoiding the prompt for a password when su'ing from a normal user to root is to change the uid of the user to 0.

To determine what the uid is execute the following:

id

EXAMPLE: id uid=21210(julies) gid=21000(rc) groups=21007(net_unix)


For the reverse, su'ing from root to a normal user, a prompt for a password should not be encountered. If root is prompted for a password, apply the latest su patch.
Trusted systems and untrusted systems should behave identically with respect to prompting root for a password. The special code in su.c for untrusted systems was changed so that root is never prompted for a password.


Su'ing from a normal (non-zero uid) to another normal user will always require a password.

[Muthukumar_5]

what is your machine information? uname -a

It must not ask password for root user to use su to normal user? Any shell wrappers are in su binary or pam setup in your machine?

Can you try again as,

a) Login in to your machine with root user
b) check the id information as id
c) su -

what are you getting there.

--
Muthu

[Arunvijai_4]

Hi Raf,

Can you check # su -

-Arun

[Becke]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your response, I have checked root user's id it is '0', but its very unusal, I have had a long and busy day guys, I will let you know tommorow if I'm able to find the root cause of this problem..

su-ing from root user to normal user should not prompt for a user's password..this is bloody strange:)...I have already tried your sugestions before posting this message, talk you guys tomorrow.

Cheers,
Raf