Tagged Questions

1
vote
1answer
56 views

Can I change user in the Unity interface without having to type password when changing back?

First of all, let me emphasize that I am talking about my home computer that I use for personal use. I have two accounts in Ubuntu: one for me, one for my wife. We don't use separate accounts to ...
0
votes
1answer
78 views

Ubuntu “1 time password on login” solution [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Why is it bad to run as root? I recently fully switched from Windows into Ubuntu. And of course I loved Ubuntu. But the most annoying thing is, system requires password ...
4
votes
2answers
191 views

What's the difference between root account and simulated roots?

So if I disable my root account with sudo passwd -dl root I still have access to sudo {su,bash} or sudo -{s,i} conceptually how are the elavated rights different from the root account? I know the ...
5
votes
2answers
121 views

Is There A Security Risk With Users That Are Also Groups?

I know a little about users and groups; in the past I might have had a group like 'DBAS' or 'ADMINS' and I'd add individual users to each group... But I was surprised to learn I could add users to ...
1
vote
0answers
161 views

How to turn on profile for restricting lightdm guest session in normal default account?

I know this profile is enabled by default on guest account. But how can I enabled that same profile (apparmor) on the account where I have to put my administrator password, the one that is created ...
1
vote
1answer
73 views

Configuring permissions with Bastille

I was using Bastille to improve the security of my OS. To set this software properly, it ask you several questions related to security rules and you respond it (Y-N). I'm stuck at this question that I ...
3
votes
2answers
80 views

Where will my full name be used?

During installation, the installer told me my name would be used for things like the default 'from' in emails. So now I'm wondering: Where else will my name be used? What benefits do I get from ...
0
votes
1answer
295 views

Why is my new user being asked for a sudo password?

I'm running Ubuntu 11.10. I'm trying to setup a user that's essentially a clone of the permissions of the ubuntu user. This works but I'm not able to sudo with this new user without supplying a ...
5
votes
1answer
2k views

How to harden a ubuntu desktop?

We are planning to install 80 ubuntu desktops in a college. The management told us to harden the ubuntu desktop as much as possible, like the user should not able to customize system settings for ...
3
votes
1answer
185 views

Can issetuid() be cleared for a child process? [closed]

I have a wrapper script A which is calling program B. A must be invoked as root so some initial setup can happen. After that, A calls setuid() and setgid() to reduce its own privileges, for safety and ...
1
vote
4answers
215 views

Secure my root account

i want to know how to change the user name of my root account from root to xyz. Also I want to know how to remove the option of boot into rescue mode from grub option at the boot time.
2
votes
2answers
374 views

How to make secondary partition accessible to me (and root) only

I have workstation with 160GB HDD capacity. I have partitioned it with: 40GB -- for OS(Ubuntu) Installation 40GB -- for my personal data, and 80GB -- for all other (public) data. I have ...
6
votes
1answer
454 views

Is it safe to run a GUI program as another user?

I need to run a program (libreoffice) as another user. I noticed that the program started in the background when invoked as kdesudo -u otheruser libreoffice, possibly to avoid social engineering ...
54
votes
17answers
5k views

Why is it bad to run as root?

I've often come across posts on forums or other websites where you see people joking in such a manner about running/logging in as root as if it's something awful and everyone ought to know about it. ...