How to make an executable require root password?

Question

How do you make an executable file (a shell script not of my own creation), when be accessed, pop up a little window requesting the password (as of now it is set to all executable, owner read and right, group and others only read.)

Answer 1

Rather than touching the current shell script, you can make a wrapper to call it with more permissions.

Save the script from below, make it executable (e.g. chmod +x mysudowrapper.sh), and use it like this:

./mysudowrapper.sh /path/to/originalscript.sh

Then make the originalscript.sh only runnable by root:

chown root:root /path/to/originalscript.sh
chmod go-x /path/to/originalscript.sh

Test it:

/path/to/originalscript.sh
bash: /path/to/originalscript.sh: Permission denied

Via wrapper script as above should work. From here you should be all set.

---

#!/bin/bash
# Wrapper to run commands with sudo. Uses gksudo in a GUI environment, falls back on 
# plain sudo in non-GUI environment.
# Info: http://askubuntu.com/a/244690/88802
# Author(s): Gert van Dijk
# Disclaimer: No warranties whatsoever. I'm not responsible for any damage here.
# Purpose of this script is to *demonstrate* a wrapper to run other commands.

GKSUDO=/usr/bin/gksudo
SUDO=/usr/bin/sudo
gui_sudo () { # Run command with a GUI-capable sudo-wrapper
    $GKSUDO -- $SUDO "$@"
}

plain_sudo () { # Run command with the plain sudo wrapper
    $SUDO "$@"
}

has_gui () { # Checks for whether GUI is available via the $DISPLAY environment
    if [ "$DISPLAY" != "" ]; then return 0; else return 1; fi
}

has_args () { # Checks for valid amount of arguments
    if [ "$1" != "" ]; then return 0; else return 1; fi
}

print_usage () { # Prints usage
    echo "Usage: $0 <command> [args]"
}

if has_args $@; then
    if has_gui; then gui_sudo $@; else plain_sudo $@; fi
else
    print_usage; exit 1
fi