Allowing users to shutdown Linux Server

**infinite_root** · 11-21-2003

Hi Gurus out there,

Need help.

Iam using RH9 in text mode.

I want to allow my users to shutdown my linux server how can I do that?

thanks.

**jasonlambert** · 11-21-2003

tell them to run
"/sbin/shutdown -h now" to run it off
" /sbin/shutdown -r now" to restart

Jason

**flw** · 11-21-2003

J doesn't he need to add the permissions to the account or dir for those cmds? I thought only root had rights for the shutdown cmd. i.e Joe blow with telnet rights to his home dir only cannot run system commands even with the correct paths. i.e "rm -rf /"

**jasonlambert** · 11-21-2003

I may be wrong, but IIRC normal users dont have /sbin/ in their PATH environment variable, only r00t does. hence running the shutdown cmd preceeded with /sbin/ *should* work. Give it a try, I could be wrong.

Jason

**sarumont** · 11-21-2003

Yeah, that should work. Looking at my permissions (that I haven't changed) on /sbin/shutdown, I see that the permissions are 755.

**flw** · 11-21-2003

Now thats a hole for anyone with telnet/ssh access.

**sarumont** · 11-22-2003

/me changed those permissions right after posting.

**lordnothing** · 11-22-2003

i tried shutting down as a regular user (shutdown with default 755 perms).. it gives the following message:

Code:

shutdown&#58; you must be root to do that!

so shutdown has a built-in failsafe..

**kriss** · 11-22-2003

you could use sudo, so the users could just sudo /sbin/shutdown -h now

**jasonlambert** · 11-22-2003

Originally Posted by lordnothing

i tried shutting down as a regular user (shutdown with default 755 perms).. it gives the following message:

Code:

shutdown&#58; you must be root to do that!

so shutdown has a built-in failsafe..

I stand corrected

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