why do i need to reauthenticate as root if i'm logged in as root already?

Question for OS X gurus...just curious, and I'm sure there probably is
a good reason for this, but I can't think of one...recently I was
installing some software on some of our lab macs, and I was logged in
as root at the time. Upon launching the installer, I was prompted to
authenticate myself as someone with the appropriate privileges....even
though I was already logged in as root? Why? I simply re-entered my
root password and was able to complete the install, but this seems to
be a redundant step. Is there a reason why root would need to
reauthenticate, simply to install software on the local machine?

Dave

 

Okay, so this brings up another question: Can an installer put things in
protected folders when you are logged in as an admin say (or perhaps
root) without being authenticated? E.g. is the authentication just up to
the installer, or is it required by the OS?

 

Yes.

When someone creates an installer, they can choose whether to require
authentication. In general, if someone's logged in as root, then the
installer can put any file anywhere without additional authentication.
However from the point of view of the person creating the installer,
it's a really bad idea to make any assumptions about what privileges are
available. So if the installer is going to affect privileged locations,
it's going to ask you to authenticate.

 

To prevent someone who's not you from installing software when you go
to the restroom and forget to lock the screen (and the door). Pretty
basic security stuff really.

 

Hmmm, I remember thinking how cute, must've back about 10.1.x
I had logged in as root (wasn't up to speed with su, sudo ;-)
and an Installer just flicked thru, it knew I was root.

Mebbe they've tightened up on that one...

 

Because Mac OS X doesn't think you're logged-in as root.
Because you can't log in to the GUI as root unless you do
some very weird things. And if you're clever enough to
know these weird things, you're assumed to be clever
enough to think through the implications of what you're
doing.

Mac OS X is not intended to have a root user logged-in.
Stop doing that and your problems will go away. The root
user is too powerful to use casually.