Why is 'sudo' better than logging in as root?

[Kincaid]

I'm fairly new to Ubuntu, and one of the things I don't like about it is the fixation of avoiding root login. I read in the sticky post at the top of this forum that logging into a GUI interface as root is nearly always a bad idea. Why is this? If I have access to the root password, and can simply sudo commands as root, what is the functional difference? The only difference I can see is that I have to continually type in my root password for pretty much everything I do. Elevating a user to root status seems to require a call to the almighty.

I'm usually the only one with access to this system, and I generally like to add in user accounts for any other people that will use the system, and leave root for myself. What is the benefit of requiring 'sudo' all the time?

[oz]

Why is 'sudo' better than logging in as root?

It's not necessarily better for everyone, but you can read this short article to help you decide if it's better for you:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/ubu...in-ubuntu.html

I personally never login as root, but I don't use sudo either. Instead, I use the su command to gain root permissions when needed. Run man su in a terminal to get more info on using su.

[Irithori]

- With sudo, you do not need the root password. Just your user password.
- Root has no restrictions. You can easily destroy your system with just one command
- using sudo for elevated access creates awareness ("Now I need to be careful")
- sudo can be restricted to certain commands, users and groups. Whereas root = root = full access
- from remote (ssh): if you first have to login as a user via key and then elevate to root, you need to present *two* credentials before you have full access. Which improves security. Remote root logins should be disabled for this reason.

There are surely more reasons, this was just a first braindump

[GreenSkyChris]

sudo is mainly for newbies so they dont mess around with system files by accident.

I have sudo turned off and "su" to root as normal when needed.

[Irithori]

It´s a tool, and I kindly disagree: It´s not only for newbies.

Suppose you are a sysadmin and work with DBAs.
You trust them enough to deal with their databases system.
(Actually, according to their role, they should know more than a sysadmin )

But you dont want them to mess with the rest of the system.
In that case sudo could be used to let them e.g. restart their oracle/postgres/etc

[GreenSkyChris]

It´s a tool, and I kindly disagree: It´s not only for newbies.

Suppose you are a sysadmin and work with DBAs.
You trust them enough to deal with their databases system.
(Actually, according to their role, they should know more than a sysadmin )

But you dont want them to mess with the rest of the system.
In that case sudo could be used to let them e.g. restart their oracle/postgres/etc

Yeah i suppose you are right. Ive never been in that position where had to let others use admin privileges.

[sgosnell]

If you're logged in as root, then no further password is required to do anything. Any malware which comes in can do anything it wants. Granted, it's not nearly as common as on Windows, but it's possible, and anyone who can get in from the outside has acces while you're root. If you forget to log out, then the system is unprotected while you're gone. With sudo, the root privileges go away in 5 minutes, but if you log in as root, they don't go away until you log out.

[nujinini]

Some more materials you might be interested to read.

[tornow]

If you're logged in as root, then no further password is required to do anything. Any malware which comes in can do anything it wants.

One can avoid that by using `su -c <command>`
What is malware and where should it come from?

It´s a tool, and I kindly disagree: It´s not only for newbies.

Suppose you are a sysadmin and work with DBAs.
You trust them enough to deal with their databases system.
(Actually, according to their role, they should know more than a sysadmin )

But you dont want them to mess with the rest of the system.
In that case sudo could be used to let them e.g. restart their oracle/postgres/etc

True, but that is not the way it is set-up in Ubuntu ( -> ALL).

Login to GUI as root is a bad idea. As root you don't need lots of gui-apps (if at at all).
Do what needs to be done as root and `exit` the terminal-emulator or close the app which you used.

I for one would go for the default way of the OS (which, for Ubuntu, is the usage of sudo). Makes it more easy to communicate with others.
I for one don't worry much about security. Are you sure it is that important to you?
Just saying.