The Perils of Sudo With User Passwords

“The consensus among new Unix and Linux users seems to be that
sudo is more secure than using the root account, because it
requires you type your password to perform potentially harmful
actions. In reality, a compromised user account, which is no big
deal normally, is instantly root in most setups. This sudo thinking
is flawed, but sudo is actually useful for what’s it was
designed for.

“The (wrong) idea is that you shouldn’t use the root
account, because apparently it’s too “dangerous.”
This argument usually comes from new Linux users and people that
call themselves “network administrators,” but has no
basis in reality. We’ll come back to that in a moment.

“The concept behind sudo is to give non-root users access to
perform specific tasks without giving away the root password. It
can also be used to log activity, if desired. Role-based access
control isn’t available in Linux, so sudo is a great
alternative, if used properly.”

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