Regarding user authentication

[Guest_imported]

Can I do the following in UNIX?

There are two users called user1 and user2 in the same group. The user1 is an administrator for the group. The Group has no administrative facility.

When login from user1 and su to the user2, is there any configuration that can be done to get no prompt for the password entry? That is, I do not need to enter a password to su from user1 to user2.

 

[AndyBo]

So, in other words, organisationally user1 is the manager of user2. user1 occasionally needs to be able to login as user2 without using a password.

Unfortunately for you, the easy answer to this is "no". If it was anything else, then the whole security system that Unix uses would be compromised.

What you may want to do is to look at alternative ways of user1 doing what they need to do as user2. You might want to take a look at the excellent "sudo" package. Using this, you can setup rules that would allow user1 to execute named programs or scripts as user2 without supplying a password.

 

[shail]

hi there,

but what i fail to understand is what is the whole point of an admin logging in as a user of his grp.. ain't he got the requisite permissions to do these task already??

afaik,
shail

 

[Guest_imported]

How about setting the SGID bit for user2's programs and making user1 a member of the group?

 

[ElgisRamon]

Or simply give the rw permissions to user2's files in the group, and include user1 and user2 to same group than these files...

I hope it works...

 

[bigscouse]

You could also run the user2 .profile if you need his envrionment to execute his jobs.

 

[bigscouse]

Here is a cheat I use: -

In the user2 home directory on currentmachine enter "currentmachine user1" in the .rhosts file.
Login as user1 on current machine then type
"rsh currentmachine -l user1"