Thread: AIX /etc/security/user like file for Linux

I'm a newbie in Linux. I understand that Linux and AIX has some similarity. However i tried to search whether there is a file system of /etc/security/user (like in AIX). In this file, i can see all the attribute of each individual users in the system. Is there somthing similar in Linux? I want to see whether the user is an admin (or having admin rites).

Please advise.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by ftengcheng

I'm a newbie in Linux. I understand that Linux and AIX has some similarity. However i tried to search whether there is a file system of /etc/security/user (like in AIX). In this file, i can see all the attribute of each individual users in the system. Is there somthing similar in Linux? I want to see whether the user is an admin (or having admin rites).

Please advise.

Thanks.

There is no such file which defines extended user attributes such as su , account_locked and so on. However there are other files and ways to accomplish some of the security issues. Basically the /etc/security/user is bit outdated and Linux use PAM based security mechanism. Can you tell me what you are trying to do? On a related note look at /etc/security directory it has some of the functionalities provided by the AIX user file in different files such as
access.conf : Use login access permissions
group.conf : Group related permissions
limits.conf : Put resources limitations
pam_env.conf : setup session management PAM variables
time.conf : Specifies the times, days, or both, the user is allowed to access the system.
/etc/pam.conf and /etc/pam.d/* PAM configs

Thanks Vivek,

We are looking at Segregation of Duties (checking whether developers are in the production environment). I want to see whether the users in the systems are having administrator's rights. From what i understand, the /etc/security/user can show me whether they are having that rights or not. This /etc/security/user also includes other attributes like the password information. So i'm just wondering whether these information can be extracted/captured in Linux. If yes, where can i get them?

I hope you understand.

By the way, what is PAM?

Thanks.

Regards,
Teng Cheng

want to see whether the users in the systems are having administrator's rights.

All administrator's rights and to grant rights to other you need to use sudo under Linux. Login as root and enter:

Code:

vi /etc/sudoers

OR type

Code:

visudo

Here is my own file:

Code:

# User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL) ALL

# Members of the admin group may gain root privileges
%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL

# WWW-data can run any command w/o a password
www-data ALL= NOPASSWD: ALL

Read the man page for sudo or just get some basic idea here: Allow a normal user to run commands as root | nixCraft

By the way, what is PAM?

Pluggable authentication modules or PAM are a mechanism to integrate multiple low-level authentication schemes into a high-level API, which allows for programs that rely on authentication to be written independently of the underlying authentication scheme. PAM was first proposed by Sun Microsystems in an OSF-RFC dated October, 1995. It was adopted at the authentication framework of the Common Desktop Environment. As a stand-alone infrastructure, however, PAM first appeared from an open-source, Linux-PAM, development in Red Hat Linux 3.0.4 in August of 1996. PAM is currently supported in AIX, FreeBSD, HP-UX, Linux, Mac OS X, NetBSD and Solaris. With PAM you can do advanced security settings such as
=> Restrict the use of su command
=> Prevent from using or reuse same old passwords under Linux
=> OpenSSH Root user account restriction
=> Allow user to login via ftp but not via ssh/telnet and much more
In short read PAM ADMIN Guide and other docs ==> The Linux-PAM Administration and Developer Guides

Hope this helps!

gid 0 normally means in admin group or in wheel or in root group and yes they have admin rights. check in /etc/groups and vigr to change. PAM is messy and PAM is also compatible with trusted bsd. good luck. trusted bsd is like PAM somewhat, IMO. please do run chkrootkit and rkhunter and also run audit on users and utmp wtmp as much as you can. else livecd!

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