GNU bug report logs - #8700
Simple way to switch user/group permissions without requiring PAM sessions

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From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>
Cc: hurd-devel <at> gnu.org, Karel Zak <kzak <at> redhat.com>, Ludwig Nussel <ludwig.nussel <at> suse.de>, Coreutils <coreutils <at> gnu.org>, 8700 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Ondřej Vašík <ovasik <at> redhat.com>
Subject: bug#8700: removing "su" from coreutils [Re: Fwd: [PULL] su
Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2012 10:24:05 +0100

On 05/24/2012 02:50 PM, Pádraig Brady wrote:
> Note Fedora and Suse use su from coreutils
> while debian use their own:
> http://pkg-shadow.alioth.debian.org/
> 
> Note also Fedora has `runuser` which is based on su:
> http://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=blob;f=coreutils-8.7-runuser.patch;hb=HEAD
> 
> There was also a very related request for
> `runuser` like functionality to be generally available:
> http://bugs.gnu.org/8700
> 
> It's probably worth bringing runuser with su,
> no matter where they end up.

So with su being removed in favor of the util-linux implementation,
`runuser` is being implemented there too.
I.E. it will be available outside of redhat/fedora/centos/...
in util-linux >= 2.22, and so should address http://bugs.gnu.org/8700

Note from previous comments in this thread,
it seems like allowing runser to be built (as an option?)
without requiring PAM, would be useful.

For reference, here are utils with similar functionality:

chid,really
  Mentioned in feature request from debian
    http://bugs.gnu.org/8700

chroot --userspec=U:G --groups=G1,G2,G3 /
  since coreutils v7.4-16-gc45c51f
  beware of CVE-2005-4890

setuidgid
  coreutils internal only
  http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=blob;f=src/setuidgid.c;hb=HEAD

sg from pwdutils
  http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/newgrp.html

sudo -u -g

runas from titantools


cheers,
Pádraig.

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