set-user-ID

You might know the normal read, write and execute permissions for files in unix.

However, in many applications, this type of permission structure--e.g. giving a given user either full permission to read a given file, or no permission at all to read the file--is too coarse. For this reason, Unix includes another permission bit, the set-user-ID bit. If this bit is set for an executable file, then whenever a user other than the owner executes the file, that user acquires all the file read/write/execute privileges of the owner in accessing any of the owner's other files!

To set the set-user-ID bit for a file, type

 chmod u+s filename

Make sure that you have set group-other execute permission too; it would be nice to have group-other read permission as well. All of this can be done with the single statement

 chmod 4755 filename

It is also referred to as Saved UID. A file that is launched that has a Set-UID bit on, the saved UID will be the UID of the owner of the file. Otherwise, saved UID will be the Real UID.

What is effective uid ?

转自：

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/58168/how-does-the-set-user-id-mechanism-work-in-unix