Re: Another system management tool to disappear.

[Reco <recoverym4n@gmail.com>]

 Hi.

On Sat, 29 Aug 2015 20:30:58 -0400
Gene Heskett <gheskett@wdtv.com> wrote:

> On Saturday 29 August 2015 10:39:07 Reco wrote:
> 
> >  Hi.
> >
> > On Sat, 29 Aug 2015 09:49:55 -0400
> >
> > Gene Heskett <gheskett@wdtv.com> wrote:
> > > > > If su goes away, IMNSHO, it will be such a PITA that it will
> > > > > encourage far more people to just give up and run their machines
> > > > > as root full time.  And I don't believe for a millisecond that
> > > > > is the effect intended.
> > > >
> > > > They provide some systemd-specific kludge instead of su. So it's
> > > > not that bad.
> > >
> > > I don't recall recognizing that being discussed yet.
> >
> > Please read the bugreport. It's all there.
> >
> > https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/825
> >
> > > > And, given the current systemd adoption rate in Debian, I'd say
> > > > that we, stable users, have 3-4 years before that "machinectl
> > > > login" thing will be available to us.
> > > >
> > > > > So, if su goes away,  how do I accomplish those tasks in a
> > > > > suitable manner that will not bore a hole in the user sandbox?
> > > >
> > > > If it comes to this (i.e 'su' will go away) - I just use busybox
> > > > (which has perfectly working implementation of su without the
> > > > fancy bits). I.e.
> > > >
> > > > busybox su -
> > >
> > > Command not found. Wheezy 32 bit install.
> >
> > Obviously for this command to work it's required to install busybox.
> > I'd recommend busybox-static package.
> >
> > Reco
> 
> Installed it, suid problems:
> 
> gene@coyote:~$ busybox su amanda
> su: must be suid to work properly
> gene@coyote:~$ busybox su -
> su: must be suid to work properly
> 
> Is it still finding the system su first?

No. The 'problem' is exactly what it tolds. Meaning:

1) "Original" su is suid root-owned binary:

$ ls -la /bin/su
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 40168 Nov 21  2014 /bin/su

2) Busybox, on the other hand - is not:

$ ls -la /bin/busybox
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1837008 Feb 19  2015 /bin/busybox


So, *root*-invoked "busybox su" should behave exactly like original
"su". Everyone other than root are told to get lost.

Note that:

1) Setting suid bit on busybox is *extremely* bad idea. Don't do it
ever do it (as busybox provides *much* more than su).

2) Your way of using su you've described should not be affected by this
little inconvinience as you become root first, and do su second.

Reco