[Chester LUG] Security

[Roger Gibson]

Roger Downing said the following on 21/05/2008 20:32:
> How would you change things? I'm with you in that it's better to become root 
> with the correct password, but for ease of use it's good to only have to 
> remember your login password plus have the benefit of cached credentials 
> meaning frequent use of admin programs does not require repeated 
> authentication.
What about the situation if (when) your system crashes, maybe a critical 
disc error, and you attempt recovery with a live CD or whatever.  Won't 
you need to have remembered the root password to be effective.  A ploy I 
have adopted in the past is to set up a second (super)user with root 
permissions, but with my full set of aliases, including safety things 
like rm -i, and done all my root stuff there.  Making it easy to become 
root, allows the enemy within to creep up when you go for a coffee or 
whatever.  It might just be mischief making, but it can cause havoc.  
There are enough easy ways to remember good root passwords.  I'm a bit 
long in the tooth, but I have been grateful for having done things properly.

Roger
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