Allow non-root user to kill process

[aujames]

We are running AIX 5.2 and a in-house developed application. I would live to give non-root users the ability to kill other non-root users' processes. This would be to allow our help desk to kill application processes that are "file-locking" other users.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
JD

 

[alexhu]

sudo is your friend

http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/

Alex

 

[mrn]

You've a couple of choices here.

You could look at setting up roles.

or my choice would be to use a tool called sudo



--
| Mike Nixon
| Unix Admin
|
----------------------------

 

[hfaix]

Like the rest, sudo will work.

Just be careful with it! Giving the helpdesk the authority to the /usr/bin/kill command, does mean they can kill processes you may not want killed.

 

[aujames]

I don't have a C compiler on this box, is there anywhere I can find the binaries for AIX 5.2?

Thanks for the help,
JD

 

[bi]

http://www.bullfreeware.com/

usually has binaries you can install. But they don't have sudo binaries for 5.2 yet. I'd keep checking there. (You might try the version for 5.1, but there may be problems with that, including some security problems.)

Or, go to bullfreeware, download the binary for gcc and then download the source for sudo from

http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/

and compile it with gcc.

 

[Chapter11]

hfaix's warning is valid. Don't give them direct access to the kill command, but write a wrapper for it that accepts the PID, checks to see who the owner is, perhaps some other checking as well, and then decides whether (while as root) to kill it or not.

 

[lillracksingen]

IBM's Linux Toolbox for AIX also contains sudo. This usually(?) comes bundled with the AIX installation media. Otherwise go to the AIX Toolbox Download Page.