/etc/suauth

Jude DaShiell jdashiel at shellworld.net
Sat Dec 17 15:59:49 EST 2005


The analysis is flawed.  A machine with 99 user accounts on it and a root 
account with only one line in /etc/suauth with one user account on it 
presents a hacker with 98 decoys and one hackable account.  The hacker has 
to go to the trouble of stealing a user account password not a root 
account password and that is more difficult to do.  It never was only the 
possibility of irreversible system damage that was the only reason not to 
run as root on the internet with the security specialists in the first 
place.  Now if on a 99 user account machine you insist on having 99 lines 
in /etc/suauth, then a hacker would have 99 possible targets and would be 
more likely to break into a machine.






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