Another reason to prefer a real root over sudo

[Chris G]

On Wed, Feb 04, 2009 at 04:45:50AM -0800, Steve Lamb wrote:
> Chris G wrote:
> > On Wed, Feb 04, 2009 at 10:06:21PM +1300, Mark Kirkwood wrote:
> >> The issue with 'real' root is that you will have to pass around 
> >> *another* password - that in most cases will get written down - as non 
> 
> > No I don't and neither do 99% of home users, there is only one user.
> 
>     Two.
> 
> > OK, in the case in question there are two users but it's hardly a case
> > of having to "pass around" another password.
> 
>     But it is the case of retaining another one for you.  So that's two
> passwords, not one.
> 
> > In the typical home environment a computer has only one user.
> 
>     Two if you have root enabled.  Unless you're going to set both passwords
> to the same in which case you might as well use sudo.
> 
>     Don't get me wrong, I agree with you.  I don't think in an environment
> where a single user will be using root there's a need for sudo.  But honestly,
> in Ubuntu that is easy enough for you to fix.
> 
> sudo passwd
> 
>     Me?  I just modified my alias for elevating to root to call sudo first.  I
> still have the odd Debian server where I have to remember my root passwords
> but for my normal boxes having to only remember my password when I have to
> elevate is worth the impurity of sudo on a single-user machine.
> 
On the other hand the second password gives extra security.  I have
outside ssh access to my machine but root ssh access is not allowed.
Thus if anyone does break in by guessing (or finding by other means)
my password they still don't get root access because I have sudo
privileges turned off.


-- 
Chris Green