[cobalt-users] URGENT: Cannot su - while being admin

[Octavio Heredia <oheredia@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello list,

After spending pretty much all day search the knowledge best, this list's
archives & Google not finding an answer to my problem, I have come to seek
your help.

WHAT IS WRONG...
1.- This morning I logged into our server as admin (over ssh of course!)
upon trying to su - (to read a couple of logs) the server would not allow me
to do so. It would come back similarly as when any other user tries to su
(su: incorrect password). 

2.- On my site I have a cgi that is owned by admin:
-rwxr-xr-x   1 admin    site# 2957 Apr 26  2001 search.cgi
however when I try to execute this script I get the following error:
	CGIWrp Error: Execution of this script not permitted
	Execution of (admin) is not permitted for the following reason:
	User not Privileged.

WHAT I DID...
I believe the source of my problems was adding admin to a new group using
the command line. I was logged in as root (su - ) and executed the command:
' usermod -G admin site4 ' to add the admin user to site4 group. I logged
out and that was the last time I could have root's privileges. I don't have
access to the logs since they are owned by root and cannot even ftp them
locally to view them. This is the output to check what groups admin belongs
to

	[admin /etc]$ groups admin
	admin : admin

WHAT I HAVE DONE...
I got rid of site4 and rebooted my server. This eliminated site4 from my
groups file and removed it from the admin user as well, however the problem
is still there. 

I would appreciate your input, it is a production server (learned a lesson
today!) thus I would appreciate alternatives to having to restore the server
from the cd (it is also collocated adding yet another twist to the
situation). Please let me know what avenues/options do I have. I cannot
admin a server effectively if I don't have root access. Thank you very much
for your help.

Octavio Heredia
Corporate Systems
Web Developer 

oheredia AT csedge DOT com


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