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From: Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Wonderful Windows Zaps Banks/Transport/Media after "Update" Yesterday
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2024 10:23:47 +0100
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The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> writes:
> On 31/07/2024 06:58, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
>> "Sudo" is a bad implementation which replaced "su".
>> which invoked superuser privileges.  You had to use  your root
>> account password but Ubuntu decided that was dangerous so to invoke
>> the same privileges you can use your user accont passwork.
>>      Canonical thought apparently that it was asking too
>> much of their projected userbase to remember User account
>> password and root password.
>
> Sudo allowed tailored access by certain users to certain root
> privileges, that su did not.
>
> It's a reasonable admin tool for a multiuser system.
>
> But who tuns a true multiuser system these days especially one where
> users can do simple admin?

Even disregarding hobbyists, more than zero but I expect the number is
indeed rather small.

There’s a few points here:

* You can still set a root password and use ‘su’ on Ubuntu systems if
  that’s what you want. Canonical are not enforcing a policy here, just
  setting a default.

* The ‘sudo instead of su’ model is common everwhere, not just Ubuntu; I
  expect the motivation for the default setup on Ubuntu is
  simplification, not any theories about who can remember how many
  passwords.

* Trusting sudo to enforce the a tailored access model is somewhat
  optimistic given its CVE record, and the general record of the setuid
  model that underpins it.

* By escaping the setuid model run0 may improve on this issue, though it
  brings other kinds of complexity with it; how it balances out is
  probably a question for a few years time.

* In the single-user context, sudo effectively creates the model that
  your single user account has privileges equivalent to root, but that
  you must explicitly mark any privileged operation. The former is just
  acknowledging reality, the latter is a useful guard against accidents.

-- 
https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/