Feedback please

[Les Mikesell]

jim tate wrote:
> Mike wrote:
>> On Sat, 21 Apr 2007, jim tate wrote:
>>
>>> I have done a install of Kubuntu just to see how it work, I'm a 
>>> straight Fedora user and no desire to move to Ubuntu,
>>> I just want to see how it works as far as SU goes.
>>> In ubuntu , can any user type in sudo -s and get root privileges ?
>>> For Security reasons this distro scares me.
>>> I teach Linux at locale libraries and wanted to get a feel for ubuntu 
>>> before I can say yea or nay.
>>> And I don't want to go threw a bunch of hassles to track down a 
>>> Ubuntu forum just to ask one question about a distro
>>> that I'm not going to permanently use.
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>> Jim
>>
>> I believe sudo -s and sudo -i is limited to users in the admin group. 
>> Look at the file /etc/sudoers on your Ubuntu box.  Also if I recall 
>> correctly users can be added and removed from groups using the gpasswd 
>> command.
>>
> But can any user perform those steps ?
> If so this unsafe allowing users to install anything they want.
> This is one of the main resones that Windows crashes so much, kids being 
> able to install anything.

The ability to sudo is, of course, restricted by the same config files 
as it would be in every other distribution.  Ubuntu just uses a 
convention of setting up the first user added as an admin user with the 
ability to run anything via sudo with only his own password so it isn't 
necessary to run as root.  If you don't like it, you'll probably
sudo su - root
anyway...

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com