access to USERS AND GROUPS without privilege

[Paul Howarth]

shrek-m at gmx.de wrote:
> t. scott urban wrote:
> 
>> This is a feature - gnome implemented something like ssh-agent.  After
>> entering root password to configure things, gnome keeps the password for
>> you for a short time so that you can make other system changes.
>>
>> If you have the notification area panel applet running, you should see a
>> set of keys icon show up there after you entered root's password.  As
>> long as you see that icon, you have access to the system tools from the
>> menu without the entering the password again.
>>
>> You don't have access to root privileges in general, though, as you
>> found, only applications started via gnome.
>>
>> If you're worried about leaving you terminal unattended, you can click
>> on the keys icon and tell it to forget the password.
>>
> 
> afair it is
> 
> $ rpm -qf `which  pam-panel-icon `
> usermode-gtk-1.74-1
> 
> it seems that the key-icon is not displayed if you execude a 
> root-application from the gnome-terminal.
> it would be nice if someone could give me a hint how to change/control 
> the time for "keeping authorization" for this one because there is no 
> visual control.

The posting at http://www.spinics.net/lists/pam/msg03703.html suggests that 
this is a non-trivial thing to change.

Paul.