On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 1:51 AM, Mike Miller <mbmiller+l at gmail.com> wrote: > I also like the sudo idea, but I see one shortcoming -- most people use > their own password to gain root permissions via sudo, but that means if > someone gets their password, they can access not just their data, but they > can completely own the system. It seems like it would be safer to use one > password to login and a different password for sudo. I assume that can be > done, but I haven't done it, and I'm not sure of how to do it. Well, this applies mostly to connecting to a host via ssh, but you turn off PasswordAuthentication and authenticate instead with a keypair, where the private key is encrypted with a different passphrase than then one that is hashed in the remote system's /etc/shadow. I find it quite funny that so many people grouse (I'm speaking generally here, not trying to infer that you have anything against this) about turning off PasswordAuthentication when in reality, PKA is far easier to use and is far more secure once it's set up. Yes, there are a few steps one has to go through and a few incantations to say to get the keys generated, get 'em in the right place, and ensure that ownership/permissions are set correctly, but once that's done, Bob's yer uncle. -Erik