Why does installer want my admin password?

As I understand it OS X is supposed to be one of the most secure OSs on the planet.
So heres my question, when an application installer requests for the admin user name and password does this grant the software (and developer) full access to system level files?
-Intelpro20

if I am logged in as administrator or a standard account, both situations require me to enter a password. Therefore, I don't understand how the type of account would matter since in both cases the admin password is supplied.
Some installations require administrator but not root access.
As I understand it OS X has this turned off by default. Does supplying the admin password gives the software root access?
Yes. Only the ability to log in as root is turned off by default, not the ability for an administrator or other user to authenticate to root. In some cases, the software may require the password again to execute commands as root.
(31986)

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