The compelling thing to me about Ubuntu was that I kept seeing information on the web about how to do various things in Ubuntu. One issue that previously gave me reservations about Ubuntu was the whole thing with disabling the root account in favor of extensive use of sudo.

Enabling the root account in ubuntu is rarely necessary. Almost everything you need to do as root of an Ubuntu system can be done via sudo or gksudo. If you really need a persistent root login, the best alternative is to simulate a root login shell using the following command... It is tested in ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala also.

Ubuntu's use of sudo to simplify Linux administration is ingenious, but barely scratches the surface of what sudo can do. Follow along as Yvo Van Doorn of Likewise Software unlocks the powers of sudo.

Today, I did a fresh installation of Ubuntu 9.04 inside virtual box. My original idea was to play with sudoers and sudo command. I edited /etc/sudoers and logged out. Next time I tried to sudo , I go some parse error in /etc/sudoers. I was stuck . I needed sudo for modifying the file. But sudo was preventing me because of the error.

In Ubuntu gksu and sudo can be hijacked by an attacker who already has access to the current non-administrative account.

By default, the root account password is locked in Ubuntu - Canonical neither supports nor advocates enabling the root account. This means that you cannot login as root directly or use the su command to become the root user. However, since the root account physically exists it is still possible to run programs with root-level privileges.

Here is a scenario where you have Windows users who need to log into an encrypted directory that is mounted on a Linux Samba share. This provides an interesting option for security.

When You use 'sudo' command it will ask for password in First time and will remember password for 15 minutes. It is a security hole for sensitive systems.You can change sudo Password Remembering Time in Ubuntu .

The consensus among new Unix and Linux users seems to be that sudo is more secure than using the root account, because it requires you type your password to perform potentially harmful actions. In reality, a compromised user account, which is no big deal normally, is instantly root in most setups.