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authenticates users against their own password rather than that of the target user (to allow the delegation of specific commands to specific users on specific hosts without sharing passwords among them and while mitigating the risk of any unattended terminals).
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When run from the command line, su asks for the target user's password, and if authenticated, grants the operator access to that account and the files and directories that account is permitted to access.
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is related, and executes a command as another user but observes a set of constraints about which users can execute which commands as which other users (generally in a configuration file named
126:, which stands for 'substitute user' (or historically 'superuser'), is used by a computer user to execute commands with the privileges of another user account. When executed it invokes a
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argues that because the group would prevent users from utilizing root passwords leaked to them, the group would allow existing admins to ride roughshod over ordinary users.
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302:. This may or may not mitigate these security concerns, since an intruder might first simply break into one of those accounts.
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245:) it can be used to start a login shell. In this mode users can assume the user environment of the target user.
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UNIX Administration: A Comprehensive
Sourcebook for Effective Systems and Network Management
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A Research Unix reader: offticles annotated excerpts from the
Programmer's Manual, 1971–1986
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without changing the current working directory or the user environment.
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su -- become privileged user... su allows one to become the super-user.
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as of release 8.18 (2012-08-12) and is currently included in the
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When the command is used without specifying the new user id as a
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402:"Unix Programmer's Manual, Seventh Edition, Volume 1"
169:. The command is available as a separate package for
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su - run a command with substitute user and group ID
1431:Unix user management and support-related utilities
680: – by The Linux Information Project (LINFO) (
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583:"Why GNU su does not support the 'wheel' group"
460:"Unix Programmer's Manual - Table of Contents"
337:Comparison of privilege authorization features
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707:
298:, and only allow members to become root with
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1398:
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714:
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512:"Native Win32 ports of some GNU utilities"
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671:System Administration Commands Reference
500:(Technical report). CSTR. Bell Labs. 139.
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350:"From Novice to Master, and Back Again"
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309:, however, does not support the group
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481:
472:from the original on March 17, 2022.
443:from the original on March 17, 2022.
1364:
548:
542:
417:su - substitute user id temporarily
414:from the original on Jan 20, 2022.
187:of common GNU Unix-like utilities.
141:account (user id 0) of the system.
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589:from the original on June 21, 2021
342:
165:. Encrypted passwords appeared in
14:
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292:systems implement the user group
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436:. November 3, 1971. p. 17.
407:. January 1, 1979. p. 174.
270:, best editable by the command
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375:
1:
368:
1384:. You can help Knowledge by
223:jane@localhost:/home/john$
7:
383:"su(1) - Linux manual page"
320:
313:for philosophical reasons.
137:, it defaults to using the
10:
1457:
1363:
614: – manual pages from
431:"Unix Programmer's Manual"
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63:AT&T Bell Laboratories
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194:command was removed from
161:system call, was part of
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33:
24:
516:unxutils.sourceforge.net
247:
213:
205:
684:20 October 2021 at the
1380:-related article is a
1339:Unix SUS2008 utilities
1334:Standard Unix programs
726:command-line interface
557:. CRC Press. pp.
549:Levi, Bozidar (2002).
74:; 52 years ago
1436:System administration
475:su: become super-user
332:List of Unix commands
135:command line argument
72:November 3, 1971
16:Standard UNIX utility
1227:Software development
538:. 17 September 2022.
465:. November 3, 1971.
250:john@localhost:~$
216:john@localhost:~$
21:
257:jane@localhost:~$
232:john@localhost:~$
35:Original author(s)
19:
1393:
1392:
1361:
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654:General Commands
385:. April 2, 2021.
237:When used with a
171:Microsoft Windows
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113:
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636:User Commands
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606:External links
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177:collection of
163:Version 1 Unix
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568:0-8493-1351-1
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354:D-Mac's Stuff
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327:Unix security
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196:GNU coreutils
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1386:expanding it
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669:Solaris 11.4
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591:. Retrieved
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358:. Retrieved
356:. 2013-01-14
353:
310:
293:
287:
268:/etc/sudoers
262:The command
261:
236:
209:
189:
149:The command
148:
132:
121:
115:
58:Developer(s)
48:Ken Thompson
737:File system
1441:Unix stubs
1425:Categories
1329:Categories
369:References
360:2022-08-10
276:). Unlike
200:util-linux
79:1971-11-03
1189:Searching
878:Processes
619:coreutils
290:Unix-like
254:Password:
220:Password:
202:package.
167:Version 3
139:superuser
97:Unix-like
997:basename
682:Archived
587:Archived
491:(1987).
467:Archived
438:Archived
409:Archived
321:See also
252:su-jane
175:UnxUtils
120:command
1102:strings
1022:dirname
946:logname
895:crontab
652:FreeBSD
593:May 30,
218:sujane
145:History
109:Command
77: (
1082:printf
1007:csplit
749:chattr
673:Manual
656:Manual
638:Manual
565:
535:GitHub
530:"NEWS"
273:visudo
239:hyphen
229:logout
179:native
159:setuid
1376:This
1306:sleep
1260:strip
1240:ctags
1175:unset
1155:alias
1137:xargs
1117:troff
1077:patch
1072:paste
1047:iconv
976:write
966:uname
869:umask
859:touch
849:split
844:rmdir
819:mkdir
804:fuser
769:cksum
764:chgrp
759:chown
754:chmod
663:su(8)
646:su(1)
634:Linux
628:su(1)
498:(PDF)
470:(PDF)
463:(PDF)
441:(PDF)
434:(PDF)
412:(PDF)
405:(PDF)
311:wheel
295:wheel
288:Some
206:Usage
185:ports
182:Win32
128:shell
1382:stub
1378:Unix
1352:List
1291:expr
1265:yacc
1250:make
1201:grep
1196:find
1180:wait
1170:test
1165:echo
1122:uniq
1107:tail
1097:sort
1087:read
1062:more
1052:join
1042:head
1037:fold
1017:diff
1002:comm
961:tput
956:talk
951:mesg
941:exit
920:time
910:nice
905:kill
864:type
799:file
723:Unix
595:2022
563:ISBN
282:sudo
264:sudo
243:su -
226:exit
190:The
118:Unix
116:The
104:Type
95:and
93:Unix
1286:cal
1245:lex
1217:man
1092:sed
1012:cut
992:awk
971:who
936:env
854:tee
834:pwd
829:pax
774:cmp
744:cat
616:GNU
559:207
304:GNU
1427::
1301:od
1296:lp
1281:bc
1255:nm
1235:ar
1160:cd
1132:wc
1127:vi
1112:tr
1067:nl
1057:m4
1032:ex
1027:ed
915:ps
900:fg
890:bg
885:at
839:rm
824:mv
814:ls
809:ln
794:df
789:du
784:dd
779:cp
612:su
585:.
561:.
532:.
514:.
352:.
307:su
300:su
280:,
278:su
192:su
151:su
123:su
20:su
1413:e
1406:t
1399:v
1388:.
715:e
708:t
701:v
688:)
621:.
597:.
571:.
518:.
363:.
241:(
81:)
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