Question

3

Simple question on sudo su -

rated 0 times [ 3] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 1859 / 2 Years ago, sat, september 3, 2022, 7:29:23

What is wrong with the following?

[cloudera@localhost zookeeper]$ sudo su - zookeeper

[cloudera@localhost zookeeper]$ whoami

cloudera

In response to one of the comments:

[cloudera@localhost zookeeper]$ cat /etc/passwd | grep zook

zookeeper:x:492:488:ZooKeeper:/var/run/zookeeper:/bin/false

[cloudera@localhost zookeeper]$ cat /etc/passwd | grep cloudera

cloudera-scm:x:497:498:Cloudera Manager:/var/run/cloudera-scm-server:/sbin/nologin

cloudera:x:500:500::/home/cloudera:/bin/bash

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answered 2 Years ago aslity · Accepted Answer

You're trying to su to a user who's shell is /bin/false. /bin/false always exits with code 1, so you're never that user:

$ sudo su - dnsmasq

$ echo $?

1

If you want to start a shell with such a disabled user, use sudo:

$ sudo -u dnsmasq /bin/bash

$ whoami

dnsmasq

Note that dnsmasq usually has /sbin/nologin (a politer version of false) as the shell, so the same principle applies.