this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2024
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A good start is using something like sudo rather than logging in as root.
sudo gives your command root permission when it runs. That way you can delete the password from the root account and it can’t be logged in with. sudo will ask for YOUR password and then check if you have permissions to elevate your command to root level.
In a simple setup, you can just use for anything you would normally do as root.
This can protect you from mistakes too, when running commands that you’ve mistyped. For example, if you want to do “rm -rf ./*” to delete all files in the current directory, but you forget the dot (period); if you’re at a root prompt, you just deleted your entire filesystem. If you’re not, then you get a permission error.
How do I manage what users can use sudo?
One issue is trying to create a user to run services under, but not knowing how to give it permission to access what it needs (while also not entirely sure what it should/shouldn't have permissions for).
Or just generally managing file permissions. I understand using chmod in a very basic capacity with a few letter arguments like +r, but then you toss in numbers (chmod 777, wut?) and I get lost.
In addition to what other posters said, some distros allow you to add a user to the “sudo” group (as a secondary group assignment; don’t make it their primary) to allow them sudo access.
Edit your /ect/sudoers file using visudo