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From: tomg@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com (Thomas J. Gilg)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: How can I give users root-like privs. w/o the passwd ?
Message-ID: <101950076@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com>
Date: 21 Dec 89 19:47:29 GMT
References: <2643@umbc3.UMBC.EDU>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Co., Corvallis, OR, USA
Lines: 20


> ......................  I would like to give some specific users root-like
> privs. to execute some privaledge commands.  ...........................

Are you trying "set user ID" or "set group ID".

Example:  you cannot as a normal user modify /etc/passwd, therefore,
the command /bin/passwd has the permissions:

-r-sr-xr-x   1 root     bin       112640 Oct 12 00:00 /bin/passwd

  % chown root file
  % chgrp bin  file
  % chown 4555 file

This allows a normal person to run a script/binary as though he was
super-user.  There may be corner cases on this though.

Thomas Gilg
tomg@cv.hp.com