How do I add users using Python scripts on a Linux machine

[Carsten Haese]

On Tue, 2007-01-02 at 17:17 +0100, Sebastian 'lunar' Wiesner wrote:
> Ravi Teja <webraviteja at gmail.com> typed
> 
> > 
> > Ivan Voras wrote:
> >> Ramdas wrote:
> >> > Well,
> >> >
> >> > I need to add users from a web interface for a web server, which
> >> > runs only Python. I need to add users, set quotas and in future
> >> > even look at managing ip tables to limit bandwidth.
> >> >
> >> > I know os.system(), but this has to be done through a form entry
> >> > through a web interface.
> >> >
> >> > Anyways thanks, do advise if there more pythonic solutions
> >>
> >> What you're looking for is actually a pretty complex thing. You
> >> *could* in theory manage /etc/passwd (and its "shadow" file) - you
> >> can find crypto primitives like MD5 and DES on the 'net, but note
> >> that you must run your script under the 'root' account in order to
> >> write (and even read!) the passwd database. The same goes for using
> >> os.system and the built-in OS utility. Be aware of security
> >> implications if you're running your web server under the root
> >> account.
> > 
> > How about invoking scripts with SUID root set?
> 
> Linux seems to ignore SUID bit on scripts:

I don't think that that has anything to do with Linux or not. The script
is not the actual executable, hence its suid bit is irrelevant. You'd
have to set the suid bit on the python executable, but that would affect
all python scripts, which is probably bad.

-Carsten