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    Why does a command work after sudo su, but not with sudo?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved IT Discussion
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    • scottalanmillerS
      scottalanmiller
      last edited by

      Odd, I swear it works for me. I'll have to double check.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • black3dynamiteB
        black3dynamite
        last edited by

        It works for me.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • matteo nunziatiM
          matteo nunziati @Kelly
          last edited by

          @kelly sudo su lets you load part of the root env if I remember correctly.
          Basically sudo lets your user do privileged work.
          Sudo su lets your user become root. And then ezecute code as root.
          This not the same as logging as root but some of the env should be loaded.

          KellyK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • dbeatoD
            dbeato
            last edited by

            Sometimes for me has been the environmental variables (like for zimbra) or like root when you cannot sudo cd to a directory.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • KellyK
              Kelly @matteo nunziati
              last edited by

              @matteo-nunziati said in Why does a command work after sudo su, but not with sudo?:

              @kelly sudo su lets you load part of the root env if I remember correctly.
              Basically sudo lets your user do privileged work.
              Sudo su lets your user become root. And then ezecute code as root.
              This not the same as logging as root but some of the env should be loaded.

              Is the default account that is created when you set up Ubuntu not root?

              JaredBuschJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • KellyK
                Kelly
                last edited by

                Sorry for the lack of follow up yesterday. I was at a client site.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • JaredBuschJ
                  JaredBusch @Kelly
                  last edited by

                  @kelly said in Why does a command work after sudo su, but not with sudo?:

                  @matteo-nunziati said in Why does a command work after sudo su, but not with sudo?:

                  @kelly sudo su lets you load part of the root env if I remember correctly.
                  Basically sudo lets your user do privileged work.
                  Sudo su lets your user become root. And then ezecute code as root.
                  This not the same as logging as root but some of the env should be loaded.

                  Is the default account that is created when you set up Ubuntu not root?

                  A root account exists by default, but you you don't populate the root password, it makes a user account with sudo privileges.

                  If you give the root account a password during setup, you can create a user account without sudo I do believe.

                  Is that what you are asking?

                  KellyK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • KellyK
                    Kelly @JaredBusch
                    last edited by Kelly

                    @jaredbusch said in Why does a command work after sudo su, but not with sudo?:

                    @kelly said in Why does a command work after sudo su, but not with sudo?:

                    @matteo-nunziati said in Why does a command work after sudo su, but not with sudo?:

                    @kelly sudo su lets you load part of the root env if I remember correctly.
                    Basically sudo lets your user do privileged work.
                    Sudo su lets your user become root. And then ezecute code as root.
                    This not the same as logging as root but some of the env should be loaded.

                    Is the default account that is created when you set up Ubuntu not root?

                    A root account exists by default, but you you don't populate the root password, it makes a user account with sudo privileges.

                    If you give the root account a password during setup, you can create a user account without sudo I do believe.

                    Is that what you are asking?

                    Yes, that answers my question. Just to summarize how I am understanding it from what has been said:

                    • I was logged in with a sudoer, but not root

                    • When I do sudo su I am actually switching to root

                    • Since this is the case the user context was different and my sudoer user account did not have permissions to the file, but in the root user context I would have permissions and thus the command succeeded.

                    Is that all correct?

                    JaredBuschJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • JaredBuschJ
                      JaredBusch @Kelly
                      last edited by JaredBusch

                      @kelly said in Why does a command work after sudo su, but not with sudo?:

                      @jaredbusch said in Why does a command work after sudo su, but not with sudo?:

                      @kelly said in Why does a command work after sudo su, but not with sudo?:

                      @matteo-nunziati said in Why does a command work after sudo su, but not with sudo?:

                      @kelly sudo su lets you load part of the root env if I remember correctly.
                      Basically sudo lets your user do privileged work.
                      Sudo su lets your user become root. And then ezecute code as root.
                      This not the same as logging as root but some of the env should be loaded.

                      Is the default account that is created when you set up Ubuntu not root?

                      A root account exists by default, but you you don't populate the root password, it makes a user account with sudo privileges.

                      If you give the root account a password during setup, you can create a user account without sudo I do believe.

                      Is that what you are asking?

                      Yes, that answers my question. Just to summarize how I am understanding it from what has been said:

                      • I was logged in with a sudoer, but not root

                      • When I do sudo su I am actually switching to root

                      • Since this is the case the user context was different and my sudoer user account did not have permissions to the file, but in the root user context I would have permissions and thus the command succeeded.

                      Is that all correct?

                      Generally yes. It is unusual not to have access to something with sudo so more very specific things would need determined.

                      Example, this file is owned by root.

                      [jbusch@nginxproxy ~]$ ls -l /etc/nginx/conf.d/jaredbusch.com.conf 
                      -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 1108 Sep  5  2017 /etc/nginx/conf.d/jaredbusch.com.conf
                      

                      If I do this

                      [jbusch@nginxproxy ~]$ nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/jaredbusch.com.conf 
                      

                      I get this.
                      0_1528226957838_6b8a689c-9cb0-4c82-8bc8-eb4c0e9e4af3-image.png

                      But

                      [jbusch@nginxproxy ~]$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/jaredbusch.com.conf 
                      [sudo] password for jbusch: 
                      

                      I get this. (ie writable)
                      0_1528227025071_045a1b8c-db86-43dd-8cd7-d4a7a0cc327c-image.png

                      This example is on CentOS 7. I do not have handy access to an Ubuntu system. I guess I could check with a Debian system.

                      dbeatoD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 4
                      • dbeatoD
                        dbeato @JaredBusch
                        last edited by

                        @jaredbusch said in Why does a command work after sudo su, but not with sudo?:

                        @kelly said in Why does a command work after sudo su, but not with sudo?:

                        @jaredbusch said in Why does a command work after sudo su, but not with sudo?:

                        @kelly said in Why does a command work after sudo su, but not with sudo?:

                        @matteo-nunziati said in Why does a command work after sudo su, but not with sudo?:

                        @kelly sudo su lets you load part of the root env if I remember correctly.
                        Basically sudo lets your user do privileged work.
                        Sudo su lets your user become root. And then ezecute code as root.
                        This not the same as logging as root but some of the env should be loaded.

                        Is the default account that is created when you set up Ubuntu not root?

                        A root account exists by default, but you you don't populate the root password, it makes a user account with sudo privileges.

                        If you give the root account a password during setup, you can create a user account without sudo I do believe.

                        Is that what you are asking?

                        Yes, that answers my question. Just to summarize how I am understanding it from what has been said:

                        • I was logged in with a sudoer, but not root

                        • When I do sudo su I am actually switching to root

                        • Since this is the case the user context was different and my sudoer user account did not have permissions to the file, but in the root user context I would have permissions and thus the command succeeded.

                        Is that all correct?

                        Generally yes. It is unusual not to have access to something with sudo so more very specific things would need determined.

                        Example, this file is owned by root.

                        [jbusch@nginxproxy ~]$ ls -l /etc/nginx/conf.d/jaredbusch.com.conf 
                        -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 1108 Sep  5  2017 /etc/nginx/conf.d/jaredbusch.com.conf
                        

                        If I do this

                        [jbusch@nginxproxy ~]$ nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/jaredbusch.com.conf 
                        

                        I get this.
                        0_1528226957838_6b8a689c-9cb0-4c82-8bc8-eb4c0e9e4af3-image.png

                        But

                        [jbusch@nginxproxy ~]$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/jaredbusch.com.conf 
                        [sudo] password for jbusch: 
                        

                        I get this. (ie writable)
                        0_1528227025071_045a1b8c-db86-43dd-8cd7-d4a7a0cc327c-image.png

                        This example is on CentOS 7. I do not have handy access to an Ubuntu system. I guess I could check with a Debian system.

                        Same things happens in Ubuntu/Debian

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                        • KellyK
                          Kelly
                          last edited by

                          Thanks. I appreciate the schooling.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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