9.2.3 Purposes of standard groups
A few interesting groups:
-
root group is the default wheel group for su if
pam_wheel.so is used without the group= argument.
-
adm group can read logfiles.
-
cdrom group can be used locally to give a set of users access to a
CD-ROM drive.
-
floppy group can be used locally to give a set of users access to
a floppy drive.
-
audio group can be used locally to give a set of users access to
an audio device.
-
src group owns source code, including files in
/usr/src. It can be used locally to give a user the ability to
manage system source code.
-
staff membership is useful for helpdesk types or junior sysadmins,
giving them the ability to do things in /usr/local and to create
directories in /home.
For a complete list, see the "FAQ" section in the Securing Debian
Manual, which can also be found as the harden-doc
package in Woody. Also the new base-passwd (>3.4.6) contains
an authoritative list:
/usr/share/doc/base-passwd/users-and-groups.html.
