Allowing Bob SUDO access to the box could be very very bad, if he truly is a problem. On the other hand, allowing Bob into the access group that can run the apache restart program via a suid bit, means that the only damage he can effectively do (besides erasing config files) is starting and stoping the web server; the rest of the box remains secure.

Either I miss somthing either you ignore that sudo can be configured to grant precise/limited access to some prog.

User_Alias  WEBMASTERS = user1, user2, user3
User_Alias  SYSADMINS  = user3, user2
User_Alias  DUMBUSERS  = user4

# User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL) ALL
WEBMASTERS      www = NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/apachectl
SYSADMINS       wiz = NOPASSWD: /bin/wiz
DUMBUSERS       blah = NOPASSWD: /bin/blah
[download]

Here I allow user1,user2,user3 (WEBMASTERS's sudo group) to use apachectl
Here I allow user2,user3 (SYSADMINS's sudo group) to use the ueber-elite /bin/wiz command
Here I allow user4 (DUMBUSERS's sudo group) to use the /bin/blah (I really don't trust him ;-)

If an intruder compromise the user4 account he can't do more than executing /bin/blah.

Sudo offer tons of other features (ask for passwd, execute under other UID...).
You really should give it a try...


"Only Bad Coders Code Badly In Perl" (OBC2BIP)