Python – Crossplatform way to check admin rights in python script

How about this? Check if uid == 0:

[kbrandt@kbrandt-admin: ~] python -c 'import os; print os.getuid()'
196677

[kbrandt@kbrandt-admin: ~] sudo python -c 'import os; print os.getuid()'
0

No need to use a bash script, just use the next function I'm using for some other stuff to generate the shadow encrypted password:

 def shadow(self,password):
  SomeZolt="$6$"+''.join(random.choice(string.ascii_uppercase + string.digits) for x in range(9))+"$"
  return crypt.crypt(password, SomeZolt)

After which write additional functionality to your python script which will open the /etc/shadow file and write the encrypted password you get by using this function for this user thus making a line like:

some_user:!!:15579:0:99999:7:::

make look like:

some_user:$1$JShdquwdjsd38hSJhdqwdkwd:15579:0:99999:7:::

Thus some_user will have the assigned password.
Additionaly you can set the user directly in the puppet statement by changing it to:

user { $username:
  comment => "$email",
  home    => "/home/$username",
  shell   => "/bin/bash",
  uid     => $uid,
  gid     => $gid,
  password => "SomeAlreadyEncryptedPassword",
}   

You can use by the way the function specified to get the encrypted password and then insert it to the statement.