GIAC Foundational Cybersecurity Technologies Practice Test

Which command allows a user to execute a command with escalated privileges using their password?

1. sudo

2. bash

3. su

4. which

The correct answer is: sudo

The command that allows a user to execute a command with escalated privileges using their password is "sudo." This utility stands for "superuser do," and it is primarily used in Unix-like operating systems to grant users elevated permissions for executing specific commands without needing to switch entirely to the root user account. When a user prefixes a command with "sudo," they are prompted to enter their own password. If the user has been granted the necessary permissions in the sudoers file, the command will execute with the privileges of the root user. This feature allows for a more granular control of administrative tasks, as it enables users to execute specific commands with higher privileges rather than having full root access, which could pose a security risk. The other options do not provide the same functionality. For instance, "bash" is a command-line shell that does not change privilege levels, while "su" allows a user to switch to another user account (defaulting to root), but it typically requires the target user's password rather than the invoking user's. The "which" command is used to locate a command's executables within the system's PATH but does not deal with privilege escalation.