On 2010-12-11 04:36, DaaX wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2264625 Wrote:
>> You would need to have no rootā¦
> If thereās no root on the host machine, how can you administer it, that
> is, installing new stuff, updating for security patch, etc.? You gave
> those permissions to a useradmin, kind of?
I simply donāt know. It was left as a kind of question.
One way would be to setup sudo to do all operations, but using a user
password (a āprivilegedā user), not rootās password. If that works, then a
super-administrator changes the root password and tells no one. It can be
kept in a safe or a sealed envelope, in case of need. The envelope is on
the care of the security staff of the building, and they log the giving of
the envelope and you sign for it.
Something like that 
(I heard of a setup with rotating daily passwords, but never saw such a beast)
However, those users having access to sudo can do anything, same as root
(unless you restrict what operations each one can do, which is a very
complicated, tedious thing, unless somebody else has done it already). But
what they do is logged, which is a safeguard.
However, again, they can also delete the log. So the next paranoid step is
to send a copy of syslog to another machine controlled by a different admin.
Or two machines on different rooms, with alarmed, hardened steel cable ducts.
Howeverā¦ 
No, I will not go on. Iām kidding, but Iām sure some more faults can be found.
But I have worked on machines with similar lines of work, but which were
already designed to work this way. There was no access to the shell, only
to a very complex control and command interface, and each person had access
to different groups of commands. Each command was logged and by whom and on
which terminal, on a separate log. One of the permissions was the changing
of users, passwords, and groups (me was one). Another was the access to the
unix shell - once there tracks could disappear, so the person needed to be
trusted.
It is possible that setups as I described are implemented somewhere,
perhaps commercially.
ā
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 āEmeraldā at Telcontar)