Ubuntu

How come a desktop user can delete another desktop user

Asked by chiao woei

Hi.

I want to ask if it is normal for a desktop user to delete another desktop user. I asked because i just did it cuz i decided to remove one user and i forgot to login as custom user and was surprised that it were allowed or is it designed to allow.

Pls advise

TQ

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Mika Wahlroos (mpw) said : 		#1

Hi,

I take it that your custom user has admin privileges but the desktop user account doesn't.

You aren't supposed to be able to remove a user account without having admin privileges. When you try to delete a user in the user administration tool, if you haven't authenticated as an admin already, the system is supposed to ask you to authenticate as a user with admin privileges. You can, however, authenticate as user A (that has admin privileges) even if you're currently logged in as user B (without admin privileges) provided that you give the password for user A.

However, if the user administration tool never asked you to provide a password for an admin user before allowing you to delete the user account, that sounds strange.

If this doesn't answer your question and you're still confused how it was allowed to happen, could you describe in more detail the exact steps that you made in order to delete the other user account? (If you do, please do NOT include any actual passwords in the information you post, of course.)

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