Can I allow a standard user to execute only certain sets of command in terminal?

Question

Can I create a whitelist of commands that a standard user can execute in the terminal in Ubuntu 12.04 desktop?

I don't want to block the terminal for the standard user.

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 04 '13 at 18:26

Create a new group, let say restricted_group:

groupadd restricted_group

Add the user (that you don't wish to to have access some commands) to restricted_group:

usermod -aG restricted_group restricted_user

Use the chgrp command to change the group of /path_to_directory_with_restricted_commands/restricted_command to restricted_group:

chgrp restricted_group /path_to_directory_with_restricted_commands/restricted_command

Finally, use the chmod command to change file permission:

chmod 750 /path_to_directory_with_restricted_commands/restricted_command

You can also apply permissions to directory:

chmod 0640 /path_to_directory_with_restricted_commands

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