Making a Second Root User

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The only way to create a second root user is to create a user and manually edit the user ID field and group ID field in the /etc/passwd file and change the user ID to ID 0. For a typical user ID, for example, change the entry from:

   russ:!:206:1::/u/russ:/bin/ksh 

   russ:!:0:0::/u/russ:/bin/ksh 

This creates a user (in this case, "russ") with identical permissions to root.

You can also create special users that have root authority but can only execute one command. For instance, to create a user that can only reboot the system, create a regular user called shutdown and modify the /etc/passwd command to change the user and group ID to 0. For example, in AIX 3.2:

   shutdown:!:0:0::/u/shutdown:/bin/ksh 

Change the initial program from /bin/ksh to /etc/shutdown -Fr:

   shutdown:!:0:0::/u/shutdown:/etc/shutdown -Fr 

For AIX 4, the /etc/passwd entry for "shutdown" should be:

   shutdown:!:0:0::/u/shutdown:/usr/sbin/shutdown -Fr 

Now when user "shutdown" logs in, the system will shut down and reboot.