Api, Password strengh problem

The passwdstrength API calls are expected to be run as cPanel user, though it is possible to check passwdstrength as root user with the privilege escalation mechanism provided by the cPanel API.

Note: I should mention that I think this would not be a good idea and is not an advisable thing to do. Escalating privileges to root for checking password strength of cPanel users provides no advantage, and I would not recommend using API to set/check strength of root password. If you do choose to do this anyway, do *not* use it on a production system until you have thoroughly tested it on a staging server.

Privilege Escalation with cPanel API Calls

The reason I recommend against this is simply that when privileges are escalated to root before checking password strength, if your implementation is not very careful and has any security vulnerabilities, then an attacker could use it to leverage a root exploit as an unprivileged local user.

Programs that setuid() from an unprivileged user to root can be very dangerous.

Even though your program would only accept a single string (the prospective password) as input, it might be surprising what a malicious user could do with just a string:

"An innocent looking omission can provide an attacker with just enough leverage to ruin your day."

http://seclists.org/bugtraq/2000/Sep/214