su command problem

[Kevin Kinsey]

John Public wrote:

>I'm apologize for being unclear.  Let me try again.  I
>have not modified the mysql-server.sh script in any
>way.  The 'su -m mysql -c date' line is merely an
>example of what I used to see if 'su' is having a
>problem.  All that line does is run the 'date' command
>as the mysql user.  I used this for testing between
>the 5.3 system and the 5.2.1 system to see if there
>was a difference.  
>
>Indeed there was a difference.  On the 5.2.1 system
>the command ran 'date' w/o any problem and then
>returned control to the root shell, but on the 5.3
>system, it su'ed me to the mysql account, but did not
>execute the 'date' command and stayed w/ the mysql
>account.
>  
>This is how I have come to the conclusion that it has
>something to do w/ the su command or security relating
>to it, rather than the scripts which are used to run
>mysql or nagios.  I guess I'm trying to determine if
>this is a bug in the 'su' command or if there is a
>security setting somewhere in 5.3 which changes the
>behavior of 'su'.
>
>Thanks again for your attention.
>John
>  
>

So, we need to check on a few things between
the two systems; I'd start with the contents of
/etc/passwd, which should be the same on
both machines.

FWIW, I can't reproduce the "problem" on 5.3
nor 4.11, as long as I'm running as root or using
sudo.  Running without privileges gives a "Password"
prompt, as expected....

Kevin Kinsey