Re: [LUG] setuid-root

[Tom Glare <tom@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 9 Jan 2003, Kai Hendry wrote:

> 
> I am trying to get pppd to be able to run for a given user, in
> convience.
> 
> [bu@xxxxxxxxx bu]$ /usr/sbin/pppd
> /usr/sbin/pppd: must be root to run /usr/sbin/pppd, since it is not
> setuid-root
> 
> Can anyone help me by telling me how I get around this ?
> 
> [bu@xxxxxxxxx bu]$ ls -al /usr/sbin/pppd
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     dialout    213202 Jul 22 10:22 /usr/sbin/pppd
> [bu@xxxxxxxxx bu]$ su
> Password:
> [root@xxxxxxxxx bu]# chown 777 /usr/sbin/pppd
> [root@xxxxxxxxx bu]# exit
> exit
> [bu@xxxxxxxxx bu]$ /usr/sbin/pppd
> /usr/sbin/pppd: must be root to run /usr/sbin/pppd, since it is not
> setuid-root
> [bu@xxxxxxxxx bu]$
> 
Don't know if this is of any help, but the following is a small extract
from the very helpful www.uklinux.net support page on setting up a
connection. I started using this method after having exactly the same sort
of problems with trying to set suid. It uses wvdial to make the call, but
am sure you could adapt it for use with other diallers.
------
   Normally only the `root' user can start or end a network connection.
   This is because it is an alteration to a base part of the system
   configuration on a real network aware OS like Linux and so should not
   happen except that it is specifically authorised.
   
   It is very simple to satisfy this requirement using a utility such as
   sudo which permits you to elevate your privileges for specific
   commands - obviously you need to ensure that sudo is actually
   installed to do this. To enable you to start your internet connection
   using sudo you need to log in as root and run visudo.
   
   Then insert the following:
[user]  ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/wvdial, /usr/sbin/pppd root

   replacing [user] with your login name on your local system.
   
   You should then be able to start wvdial and connect to the Internet
   without having to login separately as root by entering the command
   sudo wvdial UKLINUX &
   
   Do note that visudo uses similar keystrokes to vi. Before you try
   using visudo you must check the vi manpage (man vi) to learn the basic
   keystrokes.
   
   You can enter :help in visudo to access help which details them as
   well.
------
Can't explain exactly how sudo works, but I followed the given example to
the letter, and work it certainly does.

Regards, Tom   
>
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