Userid Security Question

[littlejohnny]

Hello,

Is it possible to create a uid whose sole function is to issue
shutdown command?

Thank you!

 

[vivek1712]

The Unix system grants superuser privileges to any account with an UID of 0 (zero).
Only the superuser can shutdown an Unix machine. ...

For systems administrator that share responsibility for managing systems with other administrators, or people who only occasionally need superuser access, sudo might come in handy. sudo allows limited superuser power to other people while still maintaining control over the commands that groups or individual users can use. Try out sudo or caclmgr.

You can also create a special user that have root authority but can only apply one command. For instance, to create a user that can only shutdown the system, create a regular user called shutdown and modify the /etc/passwd command to change the user and group ID to 0.

The /etc/passwd entry for shutdown should be
shutdown:!:0:0::/u/shutdown:/usr/sbin/shutdown

Now when user shutdown logs in, the system shuts down waiting 1 minute before stopping the user processes and the init process.

Best Regards,
vivek

 

[Morsing]

I think there is a 'shutdown' role too. Look at smit -> user -> roles

Cheers

Henrik Morsing
Certified AIX 4.3 Systems Administration
& p690 Technical Support

 

[littlejohnny]

Thank you both for the tips! I appreciate it.

 

[dsn1]

Also, the command shutdown can be run by a member of the shutdown group. do a chuser and add shutdown to the user's groups and he will be able to invoke it

Dave