{"id":51977,"date":"2023-05-16T21:22:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T21:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/c4041f29-602b-4ba1-b735-dc0e1ca170dd"},"modified":"2023-05-16T21:22:00","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T21:22:00","slug":"linux-security-what-is-sudo-and-why-is-it-so-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/linux-security-what-is-sudo-and-why-is-it-so-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Linux security: What is sudo and why is it so important?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Getty Images\/MirageC<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Back in the early days of Linux, things were exponentially more complicated. The distributions were far less mature, but they also required the use of a particular system account to get certain things done. That account was root, and with it, you had unlimited power over your operating system. <\/p>\n

Also: <\/strong>This official Ubuntu Spin might be just be the perfect intro to Linux<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

To demonstrate the power of the root account, one trick you could always play on unsuspecting users was to tell them to change to the root user with the su command <\/em>and then have them issue the following:<\/p>\n

The rm command is used to delete files and folders. In conjunction with r (recursive) and f (force), you would delete everything from the root folder (\/), thus rendering your system unusable. <\/p>\n

Also: <\/strong>Can’t remember the Linux command you ran earlier? Let history repeat itself<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Back then, any command that required administrative privileges was run via the root user. In order to do that, you either had to change to the root user (with the su command) or log in as the root user. Both of these options were eventually considered a security issue<\/a>. Why? If you logged in as the root user and walked away from your system, anyone could do anything they wanted to it. The same thing holds true with changing to the root user and leaving a terminal window open.<\/p>\n

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Of course, it’s much more complicated than that. Having access to the root user meant if a hacker gained access to your system, they could then change to the root user and wreck havoc on the machine.<\/p>\n

Eventually, it was decided something had to give<\/a>. Out of that need, sudo was born<\/a>. Sudo stands for “superuser do” and effectively gives a regular user (one that belongs to the admin group) access to administrator-like powers. This solved two problems:<\/p>\n