HowtoForge: Setting the SUID/SGID Bits: Giving a Program Your Permissions When It Runs

“Normally, when a program runs under Linux, it inherits the
permissions of the user who is running it, thus if I run a program
under my account, the program runs with the same permissions that I
would have if that program were me. Thus, if I cannot open a
certain file, the program I am running also cannot open the file in
question.

“If I set the SUID or SGID bit for a file, this causes any
persons or processes that run the file to have access to system
resources as though they are the owner of the file…”

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