sudo visudo [-chqsV --check --help --quite --strict --version] [-f sudoers] [-x output_file]
edits the sudoers file in a safe fashion: locks the sudoers file against multiple simultaneous edits, provides basic sanity checks, and checks for parse errors.
-c |
Contains : aliases (basically variables) and user specifications (which specify who may run what).
Alias ::= 'User_Alias' User_Alias (':' User_Alias)* |
'Runas_Alias' Runas_Alias (':' Runas_Alias)* |
'Host_Alias' Host_Alias (':' Host_Alias)* |
'Cmnd_Alias' Cmnd_Alias (':' Cmnd_Alias)*
User_Alias ::= NAME '=' User_List
Runas_Alias ::= NAME '=' Runas_List
Host_Alias ::= NAME '=' Host_List
Cmnd_Alias ::= NAME '=' Cmnd_List
NAME ::= [A-Z]([A-Z][0-9]_)*
Alias definitions are of the form:
Alias_Type NAME = item1, item2, ...
Alias_Type is one of User_Alias, Runas_Alias, Host_Alias, or Cmnd_Alias. NAME starts with an UPPERCASE LETTER then uppercase letters, numbers, and underscore characters ('_') .
Several alias definitions of the same type may be on a single line, seperated by a colon (:). Example:
Alias_Type NAME = item1, item2, item3 : NAME = item4, item5 alias member: User_List ::= User | User ',' User_List User ::= '!'* username | '!'* '%'group | '!'* '+'netgroup | '!'* User_AliasWhen multiple entries match for a user, they are applied in order. Where there are conflicting values, the last match is used (which is not necessarily the most specific match).
% , netgroups (prefixed with + and other aliases. Each list item may be prefixed with one or more ! (negation) operators.
Runas_List ::= Runas_User | Runas_User ',' Runas_List Runas_User ::= '!'* username | '!'* '#'uid | '!'* '%'group | '!'* +netgroup | '!'* Runas_Alias
# and
instead of User_Aliases it can contain Runas_Aliases. uid instead
(#0 in the example ).
Host_List ::= Host | Host ',' Host_List Host ::= '!'* hostname | '!'* ip_addr | '!'* network(/netmask)? | '!'* '+'netgroup | '!'* Host_Alias
Cmnd_List ::= Cmnd | Cmnd ',' Cmnd_List
commandname ::= filename | filename args | filename '""'
Cmnd ::= '!'* commandname | '!'* directory | '!'* "sudoedit" | '!'* Cmnd_Alias
If a Cmnd has associated command line arguments, the arguments in the Cmnd must match exactly
those given by the user on the command line (or match the wildcards if there are any).
',', ':', '=', '\' must be escaped with a '\' if they are used in command arguments:
The special command sudoedit is used to permit a user to run sudo with -e (or as
sudoedit). It may take command line arguments just as a normal command does.
Default_Type ::= 'Defaults' | 'Defaults' '@' Host | 'Defaults' ':' User | 'Defaults' '>' RunasUser Default_Entry ::= Default_Type Parameter_List Parameter_List ::= Parameter | Parameter ',' Parameter_List Parameter ::= Parameter '=' Value | Parameter '+=' Value | Parameter '-=' Value | '!'* ParameterParameters are flags, integers, strings, or lists and are by default boolean and can be turned off via the '!' operator. Some integer, string and list parameters may also be used in a boolean context to disable them.
Lists have two additional assignment operators, += and -= used to add to and
delete from a list . It is not an error to use -= to remove an element that not in a list.
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User_Spec ::= User_List Host_List '=' Cmnd_Spec_List \
(':' Host_List '=' Cmnd_Spec_List)*
Cmnd_Spec_List ::= Cmnd_Spec |
Cmnd_Spec ',' Cmnd_Spec_List
Cmnd_Spec ::= Runas_Spec? Tag_Spec* Cmnd
Runas_Spec ::= '(' Runas_List ')'
Tag_Spec ::= ('NOPASSWD:' | 'PASSWD:' | 'NOEXEC:' | 'EXEC:')
A user specification determines which commands a user may run (and as what user) on specified hosts.
By default, commands are run as root, but this can be changed on a per-command basis.
Let's break that down into its constituent parts:
Runas_Spec
A Runas_Spec is simply a Runas_List (as defined above) enclosed in a set of parentheses. If you do
not specify a Runas_Spec in the user specification, a default Runas_Spec of root will be used. A
Runas_Spec sets the default for commands that follow it. What this means is that for the entry:
dgb boulder = (operator) /bin/ls, /bin/kill, /usr/bin/lprm
The user dgb may run /bin/ls, /bin/kill, and /usr/bin/lprm -- but only as operator. E.g.,
$ sudo -u operator /bin/ls.
It is also possible to override a Runas_Spec later on in an entry. If we modify the entry like so:
dgb boulder = (operator) /bin/ls, (root) /bin/kill, /usr/bin/lprm
Then user dgb is now allowed to run /bin/ls as operator, but /bin/kill and /usr/bin/lprm as root.
Tag_Spec
A command may have zero or more tags associated with it. There are four possible tag values,
NOPASSWD, PASSWD, NOEXEC, EXEC. Once a tag is set on a Cmnd, subsequent Cmnds in the Cmnd_Spec_List,
inherit the tag unless it is overridden by the opposite tag (ie: PASSWD overrides NOPASSWD and EXEC
overrides NOEXEC).
ray rushmore = NOPASSWD: /bin/kill, /bin/ls, /usr/bin/lprm
would allow the user ray to run /bin/kill, /bin/ls, and /usr/bin/lprm as root on the machine rushmore
as root without authenticating himself. If we only want ray to be able to run /bin/kill without a
password the entry would be:
ray rushmore = NOPASSWD: /bin/kill, PASSWD: /bin/ls, /usr/bin/lprm
Note, however, that the PASSWD tag has no effect on users who are in the group specified by the
exempt_group option.
By default, if the NOPASSWD tag is applied to any of the entries for a user on the current host, he
or she will be able to run sudo -l without a password. Additionally, a user may only run sudo -v
without a password if the NOPASSWD tag is present for all a user's entries that pertain to the current host. This behavior may be overridden via the verifypw and listpw options.
* Matches any set of zero or more characters.
? Matches any single character.
[...] Matches any character in the specified range.
[!...] Matches any character not in the specified range.
\x For any character "x", evaluates to "x". This is used to escape special characters such as:
"*", "?", "[", and "}".
Note that a forward slash ('/') will not be matched by wildcards used in the pathname. When matching
the command line arguments, however, a slash does get matched by wildcards. This is to make a path
like:
/usr/bin/*
match /usr/bin/who but not /usr/bin/X11/xterm.
WARNING: a pathname with wildcards will not match a user command that consists of a relative path.
In other words, given the following sudoers entry:
billy workstation = /usr/bin/*
user billy will be able to run any command in /usr/bin as root, such as /usr/bin/w. The following
two command will be allowed (the first assumes that /usr/bin is in the user's path):
$ sudo w
$ sudo /usr/bin/w
However, this will not:
$ cd /usr/bin
$ sudo ./w
For this reason you should only grant access to commands using wildcards and never restrict access
using them. This limitation will be removed in a future version of sudo.
Exceptions to wildcard rules
The following exceptions apply to the above rules: "" If the empty string "" is the only command line argument in the sudoers entry it means that command is not allowed to be run with any arguments.
Other special characters and reserved words
The pound sign ('#') is used to indicate a comment (unless it occurs in the context of a user name and is followed by one or more digits, in which case it is treated as a uid). Both the comment character and any text after it, up to the end of the line, are ignored.
The reserved word ALL is a built-in alias that always causes a match to succeed. It can be used wherever one might otherwise use a Cmnd_Alias, User_Alias, Runas_Alias, or Host_Alias. You should not try to define your own alias called ALL as the built-in alias will be used in preference to your own. Please note that using ALL can be dangerous since in a command context, it allows the user to run any command on the system.
An exclamation point ('!') can be used as a logical not operator both in an alias and in front of a Cmnd. This allows one to exclude certain values. Note, however, that using a ! in conjunction with the built-in ALL alias to allow a user to run "all but a few" commands rarely works as intended (see SECURITY NOTES below).
Long lines can be continued with a backslash ('\') as the last character on the line.
Whitespace between elements in a list as well as special syntactic characters in a User Specification ('=', ':', '(', ')') is optional.
The following characters must be escaped with a backslash ('\') when used as part of a word (e.g. a username or hostname): '@', '!', '=', ':', ',', '(', ')', '\'.
FILES
/private/etc/sudoers List of who can run what
/etc/group Local groups file
/etc/netgroup List of network groups
Host_Alias, User_Alias, and Cmnd_Alias specifications should come first, followed
by any Default_Entry lines, and finally the Runas_Alias and user specifications. Example entries. Some are a bit contrived.
# User alias specification
User_Alias FULLTIMERS = millert, mikef, dowdy
User_Alias PARTTIMERS = bostley, jwfox, crawl
User_Alias WEBMASTERS = will, wendy, wim
# Runas alias specification
Runas_Alias OP = root, operator
Runas_Alias DB = oracle, sybase
# Host alias specification
Host_Alias SPARC = bigtime, eclipse, moet, anchor :\
SGI = grolsch, dandelion, black :\
ALPHA = widget, thalamus, foobar :\
HPPA = boa, nag, python
Host_Alias CUNETS = 128.138.0.0/255.255.0.0
Host_Alias CSNETS = 128.138.243.0, 128.138.204.0/24, 128.138.242.0
Host_Alias SERVERS = master, mail, www, ns
Host_Alias CDROM = orion, perseus, hercules
# Cmnd alias specification
Cmnd_Alias DUMPS = /usr/bin/mt, /usr/sbin/dump, /usr/sbin/rdump,\
/usr/sbin/restore, /usr/sbin/rrestore
Cmnd_Alias KILL = /usr/bin/kill
Cmnd_Alias PRINTING = /usr/sbin/lpc, /usr/bin/lprm
Cmnd_Alias SHUTDOWN = /usr/sbin/shutdown
Cmnd_Alias HALT = /usr/sbin/halt
Cmnd_Alias REBOOT = /usr/sbin/reboot
Cmnd_Alias SHELLS = /usr/bin/sh, /usr/bin/csh, /usr/bin/ksh, \
/usr/local/bin/tcsh, /usr/bin/rsh, \
/usr/local/bin/zsh
Cmnd_Alias SU = /usr/bin/su
override some of the compiled in default values. auth facility . millert need not give a password,
# Override built-in defaults
Defaults syslog=auth
Defaults>root !set_logname
Defaults:FULLTIMERS !lecture
Defaults:millert !authenticate
Defaults@SERVERS log_year, logfile=/var/log/sudo.log
The User specification is the part that actually determines who may run what.
root ALL = (ALL) ALL
%wheel ALL = (ALL) ALL
root and any user in group wheel run any command on any host as any user.
FULLTIMERS ALL = NOPASSWD: ALL
Full time sysadmins (millert, mikef, and dowdy) may run any command on any host without authenticating themselves.
PARTTIMERS ALL = ALL
Part time sysadmins (bostley, jwfox, and crawl) may run any command on any host but they must authenticate themselves first (since the entry lacks the NOPASSWD tag).
jack CSNETS = ALL
jack may run any command on the machines in the CSNETS alias (the networks 128.138.243.0,
128.138.204.0, and 128.138.242.0). Of those networks, only 128.138.204.0 has an explicit netmask (in
CIDR notation). For the other networks in CSNETS, the local machine's netmask will be used during matching.
lisa CUNETS = ALL
lisa may run any command on any host in the CUNETS alias
operator ALL = DUMPS, KILL, SHUTDOWN, HALT, REBOOT, PRINTING,\
sudoedit /etc/printcap, /usr/oper/bin/
operator may run commands limited to simple maintenance: commands related
to backups, killing processes, the printing system, shutting down the system, and any commands in the
directory /usr/oper/bin/.
joe ALL = /usr/bin/su operator
joe may only su to operator.
pete HPPA = /usr/bin/passwd [A-z]*, !/usr/bin/passwd root
pete is allowed to change anyone's password except for root on the HPPA machines.
Assumes passwd does not take multiple usernames on the command line.
bob SPARC = (OP) ALL : SGI = (OP) ALL
bob may run anything on the SPARC and SGI machines as any user listed in the OP Runas_Alias (root and operator).
jim +biglab = ALL
jim may run any command on machines in the biglab netgroup. Sudo knows that "biglab" is a netgroup due to the '+' prefix.
+secretaries ALL = PRINTING, /usr/bin/adduser, /usr/bin/rmuser
Users in the secretaries netgroup need to help manage the printers as well as add and remove users,
so they are allowed to run those commands on all machines.
fred ALL = (DB) NOPASSWD: ALL
fred can run commands as any user in the DB Runas_Alias (oracle or sybase) without giving a password.
john ALPHA = /usr/bin/su [!-]*, !/usr/bin/su *root*
On the ALPHA machines, user john may su to anyone except root but he is not allowed to give su any flags.
jen ALL, !SERVERS = ALL
jen may run any command on any machine except for those in the SERVERS Host_Alias (master, mail, www and ns).
jill SERVERS = /usr/bin/, !SU, !SHELLS
For any machine in the SERVERS Host_Alias, jill may run any commands in the directory /usr/bin/
except for those commands belonging to the SU and SHELLS Cmnd_Aliases.
steve CSNETS = (operator) /usr/local/op_commands/
steve may run any command in the directory /usr/local/op_commands/ but only as user operator.
matt valkyrie = KILL
On his personal workstation, valkyrie, matt needs to be able to kill hung processes.
WEBMASTERS www = (www) ALL, (root) /usr/bin/su www
On the host www, any user in the WEBMASTERS User_Alias (will, wendy, and wim), may run any command as
user www (which owns the web pages) or simply su(1) to www.
ALL CDROM = NOPASSWD: /sbin/umount /CDROM,\
/sbin/mount -o nosuid\,nodev /dev/cd0a /CDROM
Any user may mount or unmount a CD-ROM on the machines in the CDROM Host_Alias (orion, perseus, hercules) without entering a password. This is a bit tedious to type, so it is a candidate for providing a shell script.
bill ALL = ALL, !SU, !SHELLS
Doesn't really prevent bill from running the commands listed in SU or SHELLS since he can simply copy
those commands to a different name, or use a shell escape from an editor or other program. Therefore, these kind of restrictions should be considered advisory at best (and reinforced by policy).
Many systems that support shared libraries have the ability to override default library functions by pointing an environment variable (usually LD_PRELOAD) to an alternate shared library. On such systems, sudo's noexec functionality can be used to prevent a program run by sudo from executing any other programs. Note, however, that this applies only to native dynamically-linked executables. Statically-linked executables and foreign executables running under binary emulation are not affected.
To tell whether or not sudo supports noexec, you can run the following as root:
sudo -V | grep "dummy exec"
If the resulting output contains a line that begins with: File containing dummy exec functions:
then sudo may be able to replace the exec family of functions in the standard library with its own that simply return an error. Unfortunately, there is no foolproof way to know whether or not noexec will work at compile-time. Noexec should work on SunOS, Solaris, *BSD, Linux, IRIX, Tru64 UNIX, MacOS X, and HP-UX 11.x. It is known not to work on AIX and UnixWare. Noexec is expected to work on most operating systems that support the LD_PRELOAD environment variable. Check your operating sytem's manual pages for the dynamic linker (usually ld.so, ld.so.1, dyld, dld.sl, rld, or loader) to see if LD_PRELOAD is supported.
To enable noexec for a command, use the NOEXEC tag as documented in the User Specification section above. Here is that example again:
aaron shanty = NOEXEC: /usr/bin/more, /usr/bin/vi
This allows user aaron to run /usr/bin/more and /usr/bin/vi with noexec enabled. This will prevent those two commands from executing other commands (such as a shell). If you are unsure whether or not your system is capable of supporting noexec you can always just try it out and see if it works.
Note that disabling shell escapes is not a panacea. Programs running as root are still capable of many potentially hazardous operations (such as changing or overwriting files) that could lead to unintended privilege escalation. In the specific case of an editor, a safer approach is to give the user permission to run sudoedit.
Example
from ras[berrypi strech 3/18/18
# This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root. # # add local content in /etc/sudoers.d/ # # Defaults env_reset Defaults mail_badpass Defaults secure_path="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin" # User privilege specification root ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL # Allow members of group sudo to execute any command %sudo ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL # The following #include is NOT a comment #includedir /etc/sudoers.d # Host alias specification # User alias specification # Cmnd alias specification |
SEE ALSO rsh(1), su(1), fnmatch(3), sudo(8), visudo(8)
CAVEATS The sudoers file should always be edited by the visudo command which locks the file and does grammatical checking. It is imperative that sudoers be free of syntax errors since sudo will not run with a syntactically incorrect sudoers file. When using netgroups of machines (as opposed to users), if you store fully qualified hostnames in the netgroup (as is usually the case), you either need to have the machine's hostname be fully qualified as returned by the hostname command or use the fqdn option in sudoers.