GNOME(XSU)

NAME
Gnome Xsu - 'su - username -c command' for GNOME

SYNOPSIS
xsu [ OPTION... ]

DESCRIPTION

Gnome Xsu, is an interface for the command `su - username -c command` in Gnome. When the user executes xsu, he will be prompted for a command, a username and a password. If the username and password are correct xsu will execute the command as the entered user. So if the username was root, then the command will be executed as root.

SECURITY

Gnome Xsu uses the standard su binary to gain it's root access. This way, all security issues should be solved. The security of all older xsu versions was very bad. With xsu version 0.1.0 I introduced the use of a pipe to a secured non-Gnome SUID application. This has been replaced with a special type of pipe to the standard su application. For example the one from GNU sh-utils can be used with Gnome Xsu.

ISSUES

Gnome Xsu uses the Unix 'su' execute the command. This means that your DISPLAY environment variable of the user must be set correctly. You can put for example export DISPLAY=:0 in the file /etc/profile (bash). You can also use the option --set-display which will set the DISPLAY environment variable to ":0" before starting the command.

OPTIONS

This program follows the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with two dashes (`--'). A summary of the options supported by xsu is included below.

-c, --command COMMAND
    Set the command to be executed

-u, --username USERNAME
    Set the username to execute the command as

-i, --icon FILENAME
    Load another icon

-t, --title WINDOWTITLE
    Set another window title

-a, --set-display OSTNAME:PORT
    Sets the DISPLAY environment variable to :0 before starting the command if no second argument is given else use HOSTNAME:PORT as XServer host.

-m, --message MESSAGE
    Set the message to be displayed; you can use the character ^ in your message if you want to use a new line, and the character ~ if you want to use a tabulation. If no message is set, then the default message will be used

-d, --unadaptable
    Disables the username and command textboxes if possible

-e, --hide
    Hides the username and command textboxes if possible

--  Stops commandlineparsing and replaces the -c argument. All other arguments that are behind the -- argument are collected and will be used as the new -c argument.

EXAMPLES

xsu -c "gmenu" -u "root" -m "To start the Menu Editor^you have to enter^the root password^here."

BUGS

Please report bugs to the Author.

Version 0.1.3
    The -d option does not work (fixed in 0.1.4).

Version 0.0.1 -> 0.0.4
    Major security issues. These versions are "not" secure !

SEE ALSO

su(1), sudo(1)

XSU Homepage (Link to http://xsu.freax.eu.org/)

AUTHOR

Philip Van Hoof <freax@pandora.be>

This man-page was written by Jan Schaumann <jschauma@netmeister.org> as part of "The Missing Man Pages Project (Link to http://www.netmeister.org/misc/m2p2/index.html)".