Privilege (computing) - Unix

Unix

On Unix-like systems, the superuser (commonly known as 'root') owns all the privileges. Ordinary users are granted only enough permissions to accomplish their most common tasks.

Unprivileged users usually cannot:

• Adjust kernel options.
• Modify system files, or files of other users.
• Change the owner of any files.
• Change the runlevel (on systems with System V-style initialization).
• Adjust ulimits or disk quotas.
• Start or stop daemons.
• Signal processes of other users.
• Create device nodes.
• Create or remove users or groups.
• Mount or unmount volumes, although it is becoming common to allow regular users to mount and unmount removable media, such as Compact Discs. This is typically accomplished via FUSE.
• Execute the contents of any sbin/ directory, although it is becoming common to simply restrict the behavior of such programs when executed by regular users.
• Bind ports below 1024.