sudo(8) - Linux man page

Name

sudo, sudoedit - execute a command as another user

Synopsis

sudo -h | -K | -k | -V

sudo -v [-AknS] [-g group name | #gid] [-p prompt] [-u user name | #uid]

sudo -l[l] [-AknS] [-g group name | #gid] [-p prompt] [-U user name] [-u user name
| #uid] [command]

sudo [-AbEHnPS] [-C fd] [-g group name | #gid] [-p prompt] [-r role] [-t type] [-u
user name | #uid] [VAR=value] -i | -s [command]

sudoedit [-AnS] [-C fd] [-g group name | #gid] [-p prompt] [-u user name | #uid]
file ...

Description

sudo allows a permitted user to execute a command as the superuser or another user,
as specified by the security policy.

sudo supports a plugin architecture for security policies and input/output logging.
Third parties can develop and distribute their own policy and I/O logging plugins
to work seamlessly with the sudo front end. The default security policy is sudoers,
which is configured via the file /etc/sudoers, or via LDAP. See the PLUGINS section
for more information.

The security policy determines what privileges, if any, a user has to run sudo. The
policy may require that users authenticate themselves with a password or another
authentication mechanism. If authentication is required, sudo will exit if the
user's password is not entered within a configurable time limit. This limit is
policy-specific; the default password prompt timeout for the sudoers security
policy is 5 minutes.

Security policies may support credential caching to allow the user to run sudo
again for a period of time without requiring authentication. The sudoers policy
caches credentials for 5 minutes, unless overridden in sudoers(5). By running sudo
with the -v option, a user can update the cached credentials without running a
command.

When invoked as sudoedit, the -e option (described below), is implied.

Security policies may log successful and failed attempts to use sudo. If an I/O
plugin is configured, the running command's input and output may be logged as well.

The options are as follows:

-A' Normally, if sudo requires a password, it will read itfrom the

user's terminal. If the -A (askpass) option isspecified, a (possibly graphical)
helper program is executedto read the user's password and output the password to
thestandard output. If the SUDO_ASKPASS environment variable isset, it specifies
the path to the helper program. Otherwise,if /etc/sudo.conf contains a line
specifying the askpassprogram, that value will be used. For example:

# Path to askpass helper program

Path askpass /usr/X11R6/bin/ssh-askpass
 If no askpass program is available, sudo will exit with an error.

-b' The -b (background) option tells sudo to run the givencommand

in the background. Note that if you use the -boption you cannot use shell job
control to manipulate theprocess. Most interactive commands will fail to
workproperly in background mode.

-C fd' Normally, sudo will close all open file descriptors other than standard
input, standard output and standard error. The -C (close from) option allows the
user to specify a starting point above the standard error (file descriptor three).
Values less than three are not permitted. The security policy may restrict the
user's ability to use the -C option. The sudoers policy only permits use of the -C
option when the administrator has enabled the closefrom_override option.

-E' The -E (preserve environment) option indicates to the security policy that
the user wishes to preserve their existing environment variables. The security
policy may return an error if the -E option is specified and the user does not have
permission to preserve the environment.

-e' The -e (edit) option indicates that, instead of running a command, the user
wishes to edit one or more files. In lieu of a command, the string "sudoedit" is
used when consulting the security policy. If the user is authorized by the policy,
the following steps are taken:

1. Temporary copies are made of the files to be edited with the owner set to
the invoking user.

2. The editor specified by the policy is run to edit the temporary files. The
sudoers policy uses the SUDO_EDITOR, VISUAL and EDITOR environment variables (in
that order). If none of SUDO_EDITOR, VISUAL or EDITOR are set, the first program
listed in the editor sudoers(5) option is used.

3. If they have been modified, the temporary files are copied back to their
original location and the temporary versions are removed.

If the specified file does not exist, it will be created. Note that unlike most
commands run by sudo, the editor is run with the invoking user's environment
unmodified. If, for some reason, sudo is unable to update a file with its edited
version, the user will receive a warning and the edited copy will remain in a
temporary file.

-g group' Normally, sudo runs a command with the primary group set to the one
specified by the password database for the user the command is being run as (by
default, root). The -g (group) option causes sudo to run the command with the
primary group set to group instead. To specify a gid instead of a group name, use
#gid. When running commands as a gid, many shells require that the '#' be escaped
with a backslash ('\'). If no -u option is specified, the command will be run as
the invoking user (not root). In either case, the primary group will be set to
group.

-H' The -H (HOME) option requests that the security policy set the HOME
environment variable to the home directory of the target user (root by default) as
specified by the password database. Depending on the policy, this may be the
default behavior.

-h' The -h (help) option causes sudo to print a short help message to the
standard output and exit.
 -i [command]
The -i (simulate initial login) option runs the shell specified by the password
database entry of the target user as a login shell. This means that login-specific
resource files such as .profile or .login will be read by the shell. If a command
is specified, it is passed to the shell for execution via the shell's -c option. If
no command is specified, an interactive shell is executed. sudo attempts to change
to that user's home directory before running the shell. The security policy shall
initialize the environment to a minimal set of variables, similar to what is
present when a user logs in. The Command Environment section in the sudoers(5)
manual documents how the -i option affects the environment in which a command is
run when the sudoers policy is in use.

-K' The -K (sure kill) option is like -k except that it removes the user's
cached credentials entirely and may not be used in conjunction with a command or
other option. This option does not require a password. Not all security policies
support credential caching.

-k [command]
When used alone, the -k (kill) option to sudo invalidates the user's cached
credentials. The next time sudo is run a password will be required. This option
does not require a password and was added to allow a user to revoke sudo
permissions from a .logout file. Not all security policies support credential
caching.

When used in conjunction with a command or an option that may require a

password, the -k option will cause sudo to ignore the user's cached credentials. As
a result, sudo will prompt for a password (if one is required by the security
policy) and will not update the user's cached credentials.

-l[
l] [command]
If no command is specified, the -l (list) option will list the allowed (and
forbidden) commands for the invoking user (or the user specified by the -U option)
on the current host. If a command is specified and is permitted by the security
policy, the fully-qualified path to the command is displayed along with any command
line arguments. If command is specified but not allowed, sudo will exit with a
status value of 1. If the -l option is specified with an l argument (i.e. -ll), or
if -l is specified multiple times, a longer list format is used.

-n' The -n (non-interactive) option prevents sudo from prompting the user for a
password. If a password is required for the command to run, sudo will display an
error message and exit.

-P' The -P (preserve group vector) option causes sudo to preserve the invoking
user's group vector unaltered. By default, the sudoers policy will initialize the
group vector to the list of groups the target user is in. The real and effective
group IDs, however, are still set to match the target user.

-p prompt
The -p (prompt) option allows you to override the default password prompt and
use a custom one. The following percent ('%') escapes are supported by the sudoers
policy:

%H
expanded to the host name including the domain name (on if the machine's host
name is fully qualified or the fqdn option is set in sudoers(5))

%h
expanded to the local host name without the domain name
 %p
expanded to the name of the user whose password is being requested (respects
the rootpw, targetpw, and runaspw flags in sudoers(5))

%U
expanded to the login name of the user the command will be run as (defaults to
root unless the -u option is also specified)

%u
expanded to the invoking user's login name

%%
two consecutive '%' characters are collapsed into a single '%' character

The prompt specified by the -p option will override the system password prompt
on systems that support PAM unless the passprompt_override flag is disabled in
sudoers.

-r role' The -r (role) option causes the new (SELinux) security context to have
the role specified by role.

-S' The -S (stdin) option causes sudo to read the password from the standard
input instead of the terminal device. The password must be followed by a newline
character.

-s [command]
The -s (shell) option runs the shell specified by the SHELL environment
variable if it is set or the shell as specified in the password database. If a
command is specified, it is passed to the shell for execution via the shell's -c
option. If no command is specified, an interactive shell is executed.

-t type' The -t (type) option causes the new (SELinux) security context to have
the type specified by type. If no type is specified, the default type is derived
from the specified role.

-U user' The -U (other user) option is used in conjunction with the -l option
to specify the user whose privileges should be listed. The security policy may
restrict listing other users' privileges. The sudoers policy only allows root or a
user with the ALL privilege on the current host to use this option.

-u user' The -u (user) option causes sudo to run the specified command as a
user other than root. To specify a uid instead of a user name, #uid. When running
commands as a uid, many shells require that the '#' be escaped with a backslash
('\'). Security policies may restrict uids to those listed in the password
database. The sudoers policy allows uids that are not in the password database as
long as the targetpw option is not set. Other security policies may not support
this.

-V' The -V (version) option causes sudo to print its version string and the
version string of the security policy plugin and any I/O plugins. If the invoking
user is already root the -V option will display the arguments passed to configure
when sudo was built and plugins may display more verbose information such as
default options.

-v' When given the -v (validate) option, sudo will update the user's cached
credentials, authenticating the user's password if necessary. For the sudoers
plugin, this extends the sudo timeout for another 5 minutes (or whatever the
timeout is set to by the security policy) but does not run a command. Not all
security policies support cached credentials.

--' The -- option indicates that sudo should stop processing command line
arguments.

Environment variables to be set for the command may also be passed on the
command line in the form of VAR=value, e.g. LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/pkg/lib.
Variables passed on the command line are subject to the same restrictions as normal
environment variables with one important exception. If the setenv option is set in
sudoers, the command to be run has the SETENV tag set or the command matched is
ALL, the user may set variables that would otherwise be forbidden. See sudoers(5)
for more information.
Command Execution

When sudo executes a command, the security policy specifies the execution
envionment for the command. Typically, the real and effective uid and gid are set
to match those of the target user, as specified in the password database, and the
group vector is initialized based on the group database (unless the -P option was
specified).

The following parameters may be specified by security policy:

• real and effective user ID

• real and effective group ID

• supplementary group IDs

• the environment list

• current working directory

• file creation mode mask (umask)

• SELinux role and type

• scheduling priority (aka nice value)

Process model
When sudo runs a command, it calls fork(2), sets up the execution environment as
described above, and calls the execve system call in the child process. The main
sudo process waits until the command has completed, then passes the command's exit
status to the security policy's close method and exits. If an I/O logging plugin is
configured, a new pseudo-terminal (''pty'') is created and a second sudo process is
used to relay job control signals between the user's existing pty and the new pty
the command is being run in. This extra process makes it possible to, for example,
suspend and resume the command. Without it, the command would be in what POSIX
terms an ''orphaned process group'' and it would not receive any job control
signals.

Signal handling
Because the command is run as a child of the sudo process, sudo will relay signals
it receives to the command. Unless the command is being run in a new pty, the
SIGHUP, SIGINT and SIGQUIT signals are not relayed unless they are sent by a user
process, not the kernel. Otherwise, the command would receive SIGINT twice every
time the user entered control-C. Some signals, such as SIGSTOP and SIGKILL, cannot
be caught and thus will not be relayed to the command. As a general rule, SIGTSTP
should be used instead of SIGSTOP when you wish to suspend a command being run by
sudo.
As a special case, sudo will not relay signals that were sent by the command it is
running. This prevents the command from accidentally killing itself. On some
systems, the reboot(8) command sends SIGTERM to all non-system processes other than
itself before rebooting the systyem. This prevents sudo from relaying the SIGTERM
signal it received back to reboot(8), which might then exit before the system was
actually rebooted, leaving it in a half-dead state similar to single user mode.
Note, however, that this check only applies to the command run by sudo and not any
other processes that the command may create. As a result, running a script that
calls reboot(8) or shutdown(8) via sudo may cause the system to end up in this
undefined state unless the reboot(8) or shutdown(8) are run using the exec() family
of functions instead of system() (which interposes a shell between the command and
the calling process).
Plugins

Plugins are dynamically loaded based on the contents of the /etc/sudo.conf file. If
no /etc/sudo.conf file is present, or it contains no Plugin lines, sudo will use
the traditional sudoers security policy and I/O logging, which corresponds to the
following /etc/sudo.conf file.

#
# Default /etc/sudo.conf file
#
# Format:
# Plugin plugin_name plugin_path plugin_options ...
# Path askpass /path/to/askpass
# Path noexec /path/to/sudo_noexec.so
# Debug sudo /var/log/sudo_debug all@warn
# Set disable_coredump true
#
# The plugin_path is relative to /usr/libexec unless
# fully qualified.
# The plugin_name corresponds to a global symbol in the plugin
# that contains the plugin interface structure.
# The plugin_options are optional.
#
Plugin policy_plugin sudoers.so
Plugin io_plugin sudoers.so

A Plugin line consists of the Plugin keyword, followed by the symbol_name and the
path to the shared object containing the plugin. The symbol_name is the name of the
struct policy_plugin or struct io_plugin in the plugin shared object. The path may
be fully qualified or relative. If not fully qualified it is relative to the
/usr/libexec directory. Any additional parameters after the path are passed as
arguments to the plugin's open function. Lines that don't begin with Plugin, Path,
Debug, or Set are silently ignored.

For more information, see the sudo_plugin(8) manual.

Paths

A Path line consists of the Path keyword, followed by the name of the path to set
and its value. E.g.

Path noexec /usr/libexec/sudo_noexec.so

Path askpass /usr/X11R6/bin/ssh-askpass

The following plugin-agnostic paths may be set in the /etc/sudo.conf file:

askpass
 The fully qualified path to a helper program used to read the user's password
when no terminal is available. This may be the case when sudo is executed from a
graphical (as opposed to text-based) application. The program specified by askpass
should display the argument passed to it as the prompt and write the user's
password to the standard output. The value of askpass may be overridden by the
SUDO_ASKPASS environment variable.

noexec' The fully-qualified path to a shared library containing dummy versions

of the execv(), execve() and fexecve() library functions that just return an error.
This is used to implement the noexec functionality on systems that support
LD_PRELOAD or its equivalent. Defaults to /usr/libexec/sudo_noexec.so.
Debug Flags

sudo versions 1.8.4 and higher support a flexible debugging framework that can help
track down what sudo is doing internally if there is a problem.

A Debug line consists of the Debug keyword, followed by the name of the program to
debug (sudo, visudo, sudoreplay), the debug file name and a comma-separated list of
debug flags. The debug flag syntax used by sudo and the sudoers plugin is
subsystem@priority but the plugin is free to use a different format so long as it
does not include a comma (',').

For instance:

Debug sudo /var/log/sudo_debug all@warn,plugin@info

would log all debugging statements at the warn level and higher in addition to
those at the info level for the plugin subsystem.

Currently, only one Debug entry per program is supported. The sudo Debug entry is
shared by the sudo front end, sudoedit and the plugins. A future release may add
support for per-plugin Debug lines and/or support for multiple debugging files for
a single program.

The priorities used by the sudo front end, in order of decreasing severity, are:
crit, err, warn, notice, diag, info, trace and debug. Each priority, when
specified, also includes all priorities higher than it. For example, a priority of
notice would include debug messages logged at notice and higher.

The following subsystems are used by the sudo front-end:

all' matches every subsystem

args' command line argument processing

conv' user conversation

edit' sudoedit

exec' command execution

main' sudo main function

netif' network interface handling

pcomm' communication with the plugin

plugin' plugin configuration

 pty' pseudo-tty related code

selinux' SELinux-specific handling

util' utility functions

utmp' utmp handling

Exit Value

Upon successful execution of a program, the exit status from sudo will simply be
the exit status of the program that was executed.

Otherwise, sudo exits with a value of 1 if there is a configuration/permission

problem or if sudo cannot execute the given command. In the latter case the error
string is printed to the standard error. If sudo cannot stat(2) one or more entries
in the user's PATH, an error is printed on stderr. (If the directory does not exist
or if it is not really a directory, the entry is ignored and no error is printed.)
This should not happen under normal circumstances. The most common reason for
stat(2) to return ''permission denied'' is if you are running an automounter and
one of the directories in your PATH is on a machine that is currently unreachable.
Security Notes

sudo tries to be safe when executing external commands.

To prevent command spoofing, sudo checks "." and "" (both denoting current
directory) last when searching for a command in the user's PATH (if one or both are
in the PATH). Note, however, that the actual PATH environment variable is not
modified and is passed unchanged to the program that sudo executes.

Please note that sudo will normally only log the command it explicitly runs. If a
user runs a command such as sudo su or sudo sh, subsequent commands run from that
shell are not subject to sudo's security policy. The same is true for commands that
offer shell escapes (including most editors). If I/O logging is enabled, subsequent
commands will have their input and/or output logged, but there will not be
traditional logs for those commands. Because of this, care must be taken when
giving users access to commands via sudo to verify that the command does not
inadvertently give the user an effective root shell. For more information, please
see the PREVENTING SHELL ESCAPES section in sudoers(5).

To prevent the disclosure of potentially sensitive information, sudo disables core

dumps by default while it is executing (they are re-enabled for the command that is
run). To aid in debugging sudo crashes, you may wish to re-enable core dumps by
setting ''disable_coredump'' to false in the /etc/sudo.conf file as follows:

Set disable_coredump false

Note that by default, most operating systems disable core dumps from setuid
programs, which includes sudo. To actually get a sudo core file you may need to
enable core dumps for setuid processes. On BSD and Linux systems this is
accomplished via the sysctl command, on Solaris the coreadm command can be used.
Environment

sudo utilizes the following environment variables. The security policy has control
over the actual content of the command's environment.

EDITOR' Default editor to use in -e (sudoedit) mode ifneither

SUDO_EDITOR nor VISUAL is set.
 MAIL' In -i mode or when env_reset is enabled in sudoers, set to the mail spool
of the target user.

HOME' Set to the home directory of the target user if -i or -H are specified,
env_reset or always_set_home are set in sudoers, or when the -s option is specified
and set_home is set in sudoers.

PATH' May be overridden by the security policy.

SHELL' Used to determine shell to run with -s option.

SUDO_ASKPASS' Specifies the path to a helper program used to read the password
if no terminal is available or if the -A option is specified.

SUDO_COMMAND' Set to the command run by sudo.

SUDO_EDITOR' Default editor to use in -e (sudoedit) mode.

SUDO_GID' Set to the group ID of the user who invoked sudo.

SUDO_PROMPT' Used as the default password prompt.

SUDO_PS1' If set, PS1 will be set to its value for the program being run.

SUDO_UID' Set to the user ID of the user who invoked sudo.

SUDO_USER' Set to the login name of the user who invoked sudo.

USER' Set to the target user (root unless the -u option is specified).

VISUAL' Default editor to use in -e (sudoedit) mode if SUDO_EDITOR is not set.

Files

/etc/sudo.conf' sudo front end configuration

Examples

Note: the following examples assume a properly configured security policy.

To get a file listing of an unreadable directory:

$ sudo ls /usr/local/protected

To list the home directory of user yaz on a machine where the file system holding
~yaz is not exported as root:

$ sudo -u yaz ls ~yaz

To edit the index.html file as user www:

$ sudo -u www vi ~www/htdocs/index.html

To view system logs only accessible to root and users in the adm group:

$ sudo -g adm view /var/log/syslog

To run an editor as jim with a different primary group:

$ sudo -u jim -g audio vi ~jim/sound.txt

To shut down a machine:

$ sudo shutdown -r +15 "quick reboot"

To make a usage listing of the directories in the /home partition. Note that this
runs the commands in a sub-shell to make the cd and file redirection work.

$ sudo sh -c "cd /home ; du -s * | sort -rn > USAGE"

See Also

grep(1), su(1), stat(2), passwd(5), sudoers(5), sudo_plugin(8), sudoreplay(8),

visudo(8)
History

See the HISTORY file in the sudo distribution

(http://www.sudo.ws/sudo/history.html) for a brief history of sudo.
Authors

Many people have worked on sudo over the years; this version consists of code
written primarily by:

Todd C. Miller

See the CONTRIBUTORS file in the sudo distribution

(http://www.sudo.ws/sudo/contributors.html) for an exhaustive list of people who
have contributed to sudo.
Caveats

There is no easy way to prevent a user from gaining a root shell if that user is
allowed to run arbitrary commands via sudo. Also, many programs (such as editors)
allow the user to run commands via shell escapes, thus avoiding sudo's checks.
However, on most systems it is possible to prevent shell escapes with the
sudoers(5) plugin's noexec functionality.

It is not meaningful to run the cd command directly via sudo, e.g.,

$ sudo cd /usr/local/protected

since when the command exits the parent process (your shell) will still be the
same. Please see the EXAMPLES section for more information.

Running shell scripts via sudo can expose the same kernel bugs that make setuid
shell scripts unsafe on some operating systems (if your OS has a /dev/fd/
directory, setuid shell scripts are generally safe).
Bugs

If you feel you have found a bug in sudo, please submit a bug report at
http://www.sudo.ws/sudo/bugs/
Support

Limited free support is available via the sudo-users mailing list, see
http://www.sudo.ws/mailman/listinfo/sudo-users to subscribe or search the archives.
Disclaimer

sudo is provided ''AS IS'' and any express or implied warranties, including, but
not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a
particular purpose are disclaimed. See the LICENSE file distributed with sudo or
http://www.sudo.ws/sudo/license.html for complete details.

Sudo 1.8.6p3 July 10, 2012 Sudo 1.8.6p3

Referenced By
byobu(1), gksuexec(1), growisofs(1), logcheck(8), lshell(1), sa-compile(1),
slog(8), sreplay(8), sslogger(8), sslogger-slogd(8), sslogger.conf(5), sssd-
sudo(5), sudosh(1), sudosh-replay(8), sudosh.conf(5), vlc-wrapper(1)