I have a quick one off task in a python script that I'd like to call from Django (www user), that's going to need to root privileges. 
At first I thought I would could use Python's os.seteuid() and set the setuid bit on the script, but then I realized that I would have to set the setuid bit on Python itself, which I assume is big no no. From what I can tell, this would also be the case if using sudo, which I really would like to avoid.
At this point, I'm considering just writing a C wrapper the uses seteuid and calls my python script as root, passing the necessary arguments to it.
Is this the correct thing to do or should I be looking at something else?
The correct thing is called privilege separation: clearly identify minimal set of tasks which have to be done on elevated privileges. Write a separate daemon and an as much limited as possible way of communicating the task to do. Run this daemon as another user with elevated privileges. A bit more work, but also more secure.
EDIT: using a setuid-able wrapper will also satisfy the concept of privilege separation, although I recommend having the web server chrooted and mounting the chrooted file system nosuid (which would defeat that).
Execute Python Script as Root (seteuid vs c-wrapper)