[NCLUG] Why not Root?

[Dave Treece]

    Just my two cents worth, but as a single user I don't think it 
really matters much. I can bring down a system as a regular user just as 
easily as a root user. I've been playing with a few ram only linux 
systems (such as puppy) which only run a root user and overall....its 
really not a huge problem. Yes, it can be easier to corrupt and utilize 
a system when you can gain access via the "root" user, but I think 
overall most exploits will expose and use what's available to a normal 
user (since that's the predominate user interface), and if that user is 
root..what the heck..even better.
    As a standalone system I would just take better care of what 
external facing programs I'm running; as in I probably wouldn't run a 
web server, etc,  on a system with a root only account.



David Braley wrote:
> I am a happy Linux user by choice. I do not have a Unix or Linux
> background as a system administrator or developer. In many ways I am
> still a newbie, but I can also take care of a lot of problems on my own
> (thank the stars for google!).
>
> I started using Linux some ten or so years ago (slackware 3.x?). I
> choose to use it as my primary desktop about seven years ago because I
> was impacted by the stories I was reading at the time about the ideas
> behind the open source movement. The stories were compelling and quite
> frankly, I was sick and tired of the blue screen of Death. I felt I
> could make a difference by making the switch. Even though I have had my
> share of problems with the mighty penguin, I am glad I joined the
> community of the few, I mean crazy, brave, no wait, I mean Cool!
>
> So with all of that crap out of the way I have a question for the Super
> Cool Linux users on the list. (I brown nose so you'll be nice to me!)
>
> If a Linux machine is built and used by a single person, why not always
> log in as root?
>
> Oh sure, I have heard a million times from others say things like,
> "never log in as root because you could accidentally f**k up your
> system." From my experiences, I have COMPLETELY hosed a system executing
> a command as sudo.
>
> Others will say, "you do not want other users messing up your system."
> What if I am the only user?
>
> Is there a security reason for not logging in as root? Is the machine
> somehow less secure when someone is logged in as root?
>
> If a mis-behaving program run by a user is crashing, is the rest of the
> system somehow safe from the evil program?
>
> As a personal policy I do not use a computer for anything important. I
> do not store or create secrets on my computer. I am also quite
> comfortable with file loss (even though I do backups, mostly for
> convenience sake).
>
> I bring this up because I am basically a lazy user. I was happy sudo'ing
> into things for system administration before I moved over from
> MicroNovelSoft to Fedora. That's when the whole annoying user path thing
> started to get to me.
>
> david at linux:~> sudo ifup wlan0
> password: **********
> bash: ifup: command not found
>
> Oh ya, with Fedora I need to put the full path in.
>
> david at linux:~> sudo /sbin/ifup wlan0
>
> blah blah blah .......
>
> So I can easily fix this up by setting my path so that user david can
> have access to the other tools on my system using sudo (thanks Sean!).
> But it got me thinking about the whole root thing and how it creates
> another layer between me and the system, and the annoyance of getting
> over the barrier.
>
> So ... in my case, why not just log in as root?
>
> Take care.
>
> David
> _______________________________________________
> NCLUG mailing list       NCLUG at nclug.org
>
> To unsubscribe, subscribe, or modify 
> your settings, go to: 
> http://www.nclug.org/mailman/listinfo/nclug
>
>