super user

[AA786]

how i can check a user ID have root(superuser) privlages ?

[Pete Randall]

Look at the /etc/passwd entry for the user. If the userid is 0 (zero), the user is a root equivalent with all the associated privileges.

By the way, root equivalent users are not a particularly good idea - there should be one and only one root user.


Pete

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

Any user with an id=0 is a root (superuser).

Don't ever create multiple uid=0 accounts. Not only is it a security risk, it is a disater waiting to happen when you delete one that you no longer want.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Tim Nelson]

logins -d will also show users with duplicate userids.

As mentioned you are interested in UID 0

[Dave Hutton]

If you have root access you can run #logins
servera:root /root/ # logins
root 0 sys 3
daemon 1 daemon 5
bin 2 bin 2
sys 3 sys 3
adm 4 adm 4
uucp 5 sys 3
lp 9 lp 7


And look for the users that have the second field of 0. Otherwise cat /etc/passwd and look through the same list looking for 0 in the 3rd field.

[A. Clay Stephenson]

awf -F ':' '{if ($3 == 0) print $0}' /etc/passwd

Any lines listed will have UID 0 which makes them a super-user. A much more difficult task is to determine who can become a super-user (ie who knows the root password).

You should also note that ALL of your users have super-user privileges (at least at some times). Note that the permissions on the passwd file are read-only for all users and yet users are able to change their passwords. How can this be possible? The passwd command is a setuid program owned by root which means that the effective UID becomes 0 when the command is executed.

[Peter Nikitka]

Hi,

awf was just misspelt my ACS - he shurely meant awk. His command can be abbreviated to
awk -F: '$3 == 0' /etc/passwd

For a NIS configuration, you can check additionally
ypcat passwd | awk -F: '$3 == 0'

mfG Peter

[Sp4admin]

As said above there are many diffrent was to answer the question. check for user ID 0.

#logins
root 0 sys

sp,

[whiteknight]

Hi,

# logins
root 0 sys 3>>
skn 0 sys 3>>
daemon 1 daemon 5
bin 2 bin 2
sys 3 sys 3
adm 4 adm 4
uucp 5 sys 3
lp 9 lp 7
nuucp 11 nuucp 11
hpdb 27 other 1 ALLBASE
www 30 other 1
webadmin 40 other 1

those with uid 0 will have root priviledged

WK

[jaivinder]

Hi,

Check the /etc/passwd file for the uid no other user then root should have 0 uid.

rgds,
jaivinder