3 ms·

Off the top of my head? Ask a system service that has the privilege to change it for you after authenticating you.

• saagarjha 7y ago
  Isn’t that exactly what passwd is? A system service that has permission to change the passwords file?
  • mehrdadn 7y ago
    No, the point is that passwd should obtain its privilege by virtue of being started by a privileged process, not by virtue of being marked as a privileged program when it's run by an unprivileged user.
    • saagarjha 7y ago
      How do you start the privileged process as a normal user?
      • mehrdadn 7y ago
        You don't. It's already started as part of the system. Or you ask some part of the system that is willing to authenticate you to do it for you.
        • exikyut 7y ago
          Shhhhhhhhhh. Stop giving systemd more ideas. (/s) (But seriously, imagine a world where you can't get root because D-Bus crashed.)
          • ATsch 7y ago
            PolicyKit essentially already does this, and all of the systemd *ctl commands support authentication via polkit
            • exikyut 7y ago
              TIL (so that's what the whole PolicyKit thing was all about). Now I'm wondering what its worst case crash behavior is like.