Setuid

setuid and setgid (short for "set user ID upon execution" and "set group ID upon execution", respectively) are Unix access rights flags that allow users to run an executable with the permissions of the executable's owner or group respectively and to change behaviour in directories. They are often used to allow users on a computer system to run programs with temporarily elevated privileges in order to perform a specific task. While the assumed user id or group id privileges provided are not always elevated, at a minimum they are specific.

setuid and setgid are needed for tasks that require higher privileges than those which common users have, such as changing their login password. Some of the tasks that require elevated privileges may not immediately be obvious, though — such as the ping command, which must send and listen for control packets on a network interface.