Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!oliveb!pyramid!athertn!joshua
From: joshua@athertn.Atherton.COM (Flame Bait)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re: su
Keywords: su root
Message-ID: <5892@joshua.athertn.Atherton.COM>
Date: 28 Jun 89 20:42:25 GMT
References: <12151@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> <366@quintro.UUCP>
Reply-To: joshua@atherton.com (Flame Bait)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Atherton Technology, Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 27

In article <366@quintro.UUCP> kts@quintro.UUCP (Kenneth T. Smelcer) writes:
>At SR10.1, you must belong to group "wheel" in order to 'su' to root.
>This is a convention direct from Berkeley.  Does anyone know of a way
>to change this?

Are you sure this came from Berkeley?  I've used several versions of BSD
software, and have never heard of this before.  I know that SunOS 3.X and
Ultrix 2.X (both dirived from BSD) do not have this requirement.  In the
past I've used Ultrix 1.X, and Mt. Xinu 4.1 and 4.2, and I do not think
either of them had this requirement either.

If it did come from Berkeley, it must be new with 4.3 BSD.

As for fixing it, try doing something tricky with shell scripts.  Have
a shell script which is setuid and owned by wheel; use it to call the "real"
su.  This will do bad things for security, but that's life.  What else
is group wheel used for?  If nothing, just add everyone to it.  Look for
public domain versions of su.

Have fun.

Joshua Levy
--------                Quote: "If you haven't ported your program, it's not
Addresses:                      a portable program.  No exceptions."  
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