man > SUDO.CONF(5)

SUDO.CONF(5)                             File Formats Manual                            SUDO.CONF(5)

NAME
       sudo.conf — configuration for sudo front-end

DESCRIPTION
       The  sudo.conf  file  is  used to configure the sudo front-end.  It is used to configure sudo
       plugins, plugin-agnostic path names, debug flags, and other settings.

       The sudo.conf file supports the following directives, described in detail below.

       Plugin  an approval, audit, I/O logging, or security policy plugin

       Path    a plugin-agnostic path

       Set     a front-end setting, such as disable_coredump or group_source

       Debug   debug flags to aid in debugging sudo, sudoreplay, visudo, and the sudoers plugin.

       The pound sign (‘#’) is used to indicate a comment.  Both the comment character and any  text
       after it, up to the end of the line, are ignored.

       Long  lines can be continued with a backslash (‘\’) as the last character on the line.  Lead‐
       ing white space is removed from the beginning of lines even when a continuation character  is
       used.

       Non-comment lines that don't begin with Plugin, Path, Debug, or Set are silently ignored.

       The sudo.conf file is always parsed in the ‘C’ locale.

   Plugin configuration
       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  seam‐
       lessly  with  the  sudo  front-end.   Plugins are dynamically loaded based on the contents of
       sudo.conf.

       A Plugin line consists of the Plugin keyword, followed by the symbol_name and the path to the
       dynamic shared object that contains the plugin.  The symbol_name is the name  of  the  struct
       approval_plugin,  struct  audit_plugin,  struct io_plugin, or struct policy_plugin defined by
       the plugin.  If a plugin implements multiple plugin types, there must be a  Plugin  line  for
       each  unique  symbol name.  The path may be fully qualified or relative.  If not fully quali‐
       fied, it is relative to the directory specified by the plugin_dir  Path  setting,  which  de‐
       faults to /usr/libexec/sudo.  In other words:

           Plugin sudoers_policy sudoers.so

       is equivalent to:

           Plugin sudoers_policy /usr/libexec/sudo/sudoers.so

       If  the  plugin  was compiled statically into the sudo binary instead of being installed as a
       dynamic shared object, the path should be specified without a leading directory, as  it  does
       not actually exist in the file system.  For example:

           Plugin sudoers_policy sudoers.so

       On  AIX  systems, the plugin may be either a shared object ending in ‘.so’ or an archive file
       containing a shared object ending in ‘.a’ with the name of the shared object  in  parentheses
       at the end.

       Starting with sudo 1.8.5, any additional parameters after the path are passed as arguments to
       the  plugin's  open function.  For example, to override the compile-time default sudoers file
       mode:

           Plugin sudoers_policy sudoers.so sudoers_mode=0440

       See the sudoers(5) manual for a list of supported arguments.

       The same dynamic shared object may contain multiple plugins, each  with  a  different  symbol
       name.   The file must be owned by user-ID 0 and only writable by its owner.  Because of ambi‐
       guities that arise from composite policies, only a single policy  plugin  may  be  specified.
       This limitation does not apply to I/O plugins.

       If  no  sudo.conf file is present, or if it contains no Plugin lines, the sudoers plugin will
       be used as the default security policy, for I/O logging (if enabled by the policy),  and  for
       auditing.  This is equivalent to the following:

           Plugin sudoers_policy sudoers.so
           Plugin sudoers_io sudoers.so
           Plugin sudoers_audit sudoers.so

       Starting with sudo version 1.9.1, some of the logging functionality of the sudoers plugin has
       been  moved  from  the  policy  plugin  to  an  audit plugin.  To maintain compatibility with
       sudo.conf files from older sudo versions, if sudoers is configured as the security policy, it
       will be used as an audit plugin as well.  This guarantees that the logging behavior  will  be
       consistent with that of sudo versions 1.9.0 and below.

       For more information on the sudo plugin architecture, see the sudo_plugin(5) manual.

   Path settings
       A  Path  line  consists  of the Path keyword, followed by the name of the path to set and its
       value.  For example:

           Path intercept /usr/libexec/sudo/sudo_intercept.so
           Path noexec /usr/libexec/sudo/sudo_noexec.so
           Path askpass /usr/X11R6/bin/ssh-askpass

       If no path name is specified, features relying on the specified  setting  will  be  disabled.
       Disabling Path settings is only supported in sudo version 1.8.16 and higher.

       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  vari‐
             able.

       devsearch
             An  ordered,  colon-separated  search  path of directories to look in for device nodes.
             This is used when mapping the process's tty device number to a device name  on  systems
             that  do not provide such a mechanism.  Sudo will not recurse into sub-directories.  If
             terminal devices may be located in a sub-directory of /dev, that path must  be  explic‐
             itly       listed       in       devsearch.        The       default      value      is
             /dev/pts:/dev/vt:/dev/term:/dev/zcons:/dev/pty:/dev

             This option is ignored on systems that support either the devname()  or  _ttyname_dev()
             functions, for example BSD, macOS and Solaris.

       intercept
             The  path  to  a  shared  library  containing  a  wrappers for the execve(2), execl(3),
             execle(3), execlp(3), execv(3), execvp(3), execvpe(3), and system(3) library  functions
             that intercepts attempts to run further commands and performs a policy check before al‐
             lowing  them  to  be executed.  This is used to implement the intercept and log_subcmds
             functionality on systems that support LD_PRELOAD or the equivalent.

             The intercept path may be set to either a single fully-qualified path, or, for  systems
             that  support  separate LD_PRELOAD environment variables for 32-bit and 64-bit executa‐
             bles, it may optionally be set to two fully-qualified paths separated by a colon (‘:’).
             The first path should be the 32-bit version and the second the  64-bit  version.   This
             two-path  form  is  currently  only  supported on AIX and Solaris systems.  The default
             value is /usr/libexec/sudo/sudo_intercept.so.

       noexec
             The path  to  a  shared  library  containing  wrappers  for  the  execve(2),  execl(3),
             execle(3),   execlp(3),   exect(3),   execv(3),   execveat(3),   execvP(3),  execvp(3),
             execvpe(3),  fexecve(3),  popen(3),  posix_spawn(3),  posix_spawnp(3),  system(3),  and
             wordexp(3)  library  functions that prevent the execution of further commands.  This is
             used to implement the noexec functionality on systems that support  LD_PRELOAD  or  the
             equivalent.

             The  noexec  path  may  be set to either a single fully-qualified path, or, for systems
             that support separate LD_PRELOAD environment variables for 32-bit and  64-bit  executa‐
             bles, it may optionally be set to two fully-qualified paths separated by a colon (‘:’).
             The  first  path  should be the 32-bit version and the second the 64-bit version.  This
             two-path form is currently only supported on AIX  and  Solaris  systems.   The  default
             value is /usr/libexec/sudo/sudo_noexec.so.

       plugin_dir
             The  default  directory  to use when searching for plugins that are specified without a
             fully qualified path name.  The default value is /usr/libexec/sudo.

       sesh  The fully-qualified path to the sesh binary.  This setting is only used  when  sudo  is
             built with SELinux support.  The default value is /usr/libexec/sudo/sesh.

   Other settings
       The sudo.conf file also supports the following front-end settings:

       disable_coredump
             Core  dumps  of sudo itself are disabled by default to prevent the disclosure of poten‐
             tially sensitive information.  To aid in debugging sudo crashes, you may wish to re-en‐
             able core dumps by setting “disable_coredump” to false in sudo.conf as follows:

                 Set disable_coredump false

             All modern  operating  systems  place  restrictions  on  core  dumps  from  set-user-ID
             processes  like  sudo  so this option can be enabled without compromising security.  To
             actually get a sudo core file you will likely need to enable core dumps for set-user-ID
             processes.  On BSD and Linux systems this is accomplished in the sysctl(8) command.  On
             Solaris, the coreadm(1m) command is used to configure core dump behavior.

             This setting is only available in sudo version 1.8.4 and higher.

       group_source
             sudo passes the invoking user's group list to the policy and I/O plugins.  On most sys‐
             tems, there is an upper limit to the number of groups that a user may belong to  simul‐
             taneously  (typically  16  for compatibility with NFS).  On systems with the getconf(1)
             utility, running:
                   getconf NGROUPS_MAX
             will return the maximum number of groups.

             However, it is still possible to be a member of a larger number of groups--they  simply
             won't be included in the group list returned by the kernel for the user.  Starting with
             sudo  version 1.8.7, if the user's kernel group list has the maximum number of entries,
             sudo will consult the group database directly to determine the group list.  This  makes
             it  possible  for  the  security policy to perform matching by group name even when the
             user is a member of more than the maximum number of groups.

             The group_source setting allows the administrator  to  change  this  default  behavior.
             Supported values for group_source are:

             static
                   Use  the  static  group  list that the kernel returns.  Retrieving the group list
                   this way is very fast but it is subject to an upper limit as described above.  It
                   is “static” in that it does not reflect changes to the group database made  after
                   the user logs in.  This was the default behavior prior to sudo 1.8.7.

             dynamic
                   Always  query  the group database directly.  It is “dynamic” in that changes made
                   to the group database after the user logs in will be reflected in the group list.
                   On some systems, querying the group database for all of a user's  groups  can  be
                   time consuming when querying a network-based group database.  Most operating sys‐
                   tems  provide  an  efficient  method of performing such queries.  Currently, sudo
                   supports efficient group queries on AIX, BSD, Linux, macOS, and Solaris.  This is
                   the default behavior on macOS in sudo 1.9.6 and higher.

             adaptive
                   Only query the group database if the static group list returned by the kernel has
                   the maximum number of entries.  This is the default  behavior  on  systems  other
                   than macOS in sudo 1.8.7 and higher.

             For example, to cause sudo to only use the kernel's static list of groups for the user:

                 Set group_source static

             This setting is only available in sudo version 1.8.7 and higher.

       max_groups
             The  maximum  number  of  user groups to retrieve from the group database.  Values less
             than one or larger than 1024 will be ignored.  This setting is only used when  querying
             the group database directly.  It is intended to be used on systems where it is not pos‐
             sible  to  detect when the array to be populated with group entries is not sufficiently
             large.  By default, sudo will allocate four times the system's maximum number of groups
             (see above) and retry with double that number if the group database query fails.

             This setting is only available in sudo version 1.8.7 and higher.  It should not be  re‐
             quired in sudo versions 1.8.24 and higher and may be removed in a later release.

       probe_interfaces
             By  default, sudo will probe the system's network interfaces and pass the IP address of
             each enabled interface to the policy plugin.  This makes it possible for the plugin  to
             match rules based on the IP address without having to query DNS.  On Linux systems with
             a  large  number  of virtual interfaces, this may take a non-negligible amount of time.
             If IP-based matching is not required, network interface probing can be disabled as fol‐
             lows:

                 Set probe_interfaces false

             This setting is only available in sudo version 1.8.10 and higher.

   Debug settings
       sudo versions 1.8.4 and higher support a flexible debugging framework that can log 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, plugin, or
       shared object to debug, the debug file name, and a comma-separated list of debug flags.   The
       debug  flag  syntax  used  by sudo, the sudoers plugin along with its associated programs and
       shared objects is subsystem@priority but a third-party plugin is free to use a different for‐
       mat so long as it does not include a comma (‘,’).

       On AIX systems, a Debug line will  match  a  plugin  specified  as  either  the  name  of  an
       SVR4-style  shared object file ending in ‘.so’, an archive file ending in ‘.a’, or an archive
       file ending in ‘.a’ with the name of the shared object in parentheses.

       Examples:

           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.

           Debug sudo_intercept.so /var/log/intercept_debug all@debug

       would log all debugging statements, regardless of level, for the sudo_intercept.so shared li‐
       brary that implements sudo's intercept functionality on some systems.

           Debug sudoers.so /var/log/sudoers_debug all@debug

       would  log  all  debugging  statements,  regardless  of  level,  for the sudoers plugin.  See
       sudoers(5) for the full list of subsystems supported by the sudoers plugin.

       As of sudo 1.8.12, multiple Debug entries may be specified per program.   Older  versions  of
       sudo  only  support a single Debug entry per program.  Plugin-specific Debug entries are also
       supported starting with sudo 1.8.12 and are matched by either the base  name  of  the  plugin
       that  was loaded (for example sudoers.so) or by the plugin's fully-qualified path name.  Pre‐
       viously, the sudoers plugin shared the same Debug entry as the sudo front-end and  could  not
       be configured separately.

       The  following  priorities  are  supported, in order of decreasing severity: crit, err, warn,
       notice, diag, info, trace, and debug.  Each priority, when specified, also includes all  pri‐
       orities  higher  than  it.   For  example,  a priority of notice would include debug messages
       logged at notice and higher.

       The priorities trace and debug also include function call tracing which logs when a  function
       is   entered   and   when   it  returns.   For  example,  the  following  trace  is  for  the
       get_user_groups() function located in src/sudo.c:

           sudo[123] -> get_user_groups @ src/sudo.c:385
           sudo[123] <- get_user_groups @ src/sudo.c:429 := groups=10,0,5

       When the function is entered, indicated by a right arrow ‘->’, the program, process ID, func‐
       tion, source file, and line number are logged.  When the function  returns,  indicated  by  a
       left  arrow  ‘<-’, the same information is logged along with the return value.  In this case,
       the return value is a string.

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

       all         matches every subsystem

       args        command line argument processing

       conv        user conversation

       edit        sudoedit

       event       event subsystem

       exec        command execution

       main        sudo main function

       netif       network interface handling

       pcomm       communication with the plugin

       plugin      plugin configuration

       pty         pseudo-terminal related code

       selinux     SELinux-specific handling

       util        utility functions

       utmp        utmp handling

       The sudoers(5) plugin includes support for additional subsystems.

FILES
       /etc/sudo.conf            sudo front-end configuration

EXAMPLES
       #
       # Default /etc/sudo.conf file
       #
       # Sudo plugins:
       #   Plugin plugin_name plugin_path plugin_options ...
       #
       # The plugin_path is relative to /usr/libexec/sudo 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.
       #
       # The sudoers plugin is used by default if no Plugin lines are present.
       #Plugin sudoers_policy sudoers.so
       #Plugin sudoers_io sudoers.so
       #Plugin sudoers_audit sudoers.so

       #
       # Sudo askpass:
       #   Path askpass /path/to/askpass
       #
       # An askpass helper program may be specified to provide a graphical
       # password prompt for "sudo -A" support.  Sudo does not ship with its
       # own askpass program but can use the OpenSSH askpass.
       #
       # Use the OpenSSH askpass
       #Path askpass /usr/X11R6/bin/ssh-askpass
       #
       # Use the Gnome OpenSSH askpass
       #Path askpass /usr/libexec/openssh/gnome-ssh-askpass

       #
       # Sudo device search path:
       #   Path devsearch /dev/path1:/dev/path2:/dev
       #
       # A colon-separated list of paths to check when searching for a user's
       # terminal device.
       #
       #Path devsearch /dev/pts:/dev/vt:/dev/term:/dev/zcons:/dev/pty:/dev

       #
       # Sudo command interception:
       #   Path intercept /path/to/sudo_intercept.so
       #
       # Path to a shared library containing replacements for the execv()
       # and execve() library functions that perform a policy check to verify
       # the command is allowed and simply return an error if not.  This is
       # used to implement the "intercept" functionality on systems that
       # support LD_PRELOAD or its equivalent.
       #
       # The compiled-in value is usually sufficient and should only be changed
       # if you rename or move the sudo_intercept.so file.
       #
       #Path intercept /usr/libexec/sudo/sudo_intercept.so

       #
       # Sudo noexec:
       #   Path noexec /path/to/sudo_noexec.so
       #
       # Path to a shared library containing replacements for the execv()
       # family of library functions that just return an error.  This is
       # used to implement the "noexec" functionality on systems that support
       # LD_PRELOAD or its equivalent.
       #
       # The compiled-in value is usually sufficient and should only be changed
       # if you rename or move the sudo_noexec.so file.
       #
       #Path noexec /usr/libexec/sudo/sudo_noexec.so

       #
       # Sudo plugin directory:
       #   Path plugin_dir /path/to/plugins
       #
       # The default directory to use when searching for plugins that are
       # specified without a fully qualified path name.
       #
       #Path plugin_dir /usr/libexec/sudo

       #
       # Core dumps:
       #   Set disable_coredump true|false
       #
       # By default, sudo disables core dumps while it is executing (they
       # are re-enabled for the command that is run).
       # To aid in debugging sudo problems, you may wish to enable core
       # dumps by setting "disable_coredump" to false.
       #
       #Set disable_coredump false

       #
       # User groups:
       #   Set group_source static|dynamic|adaptive
       #
       # Sudo passes the user's group list to the policy plugin.
       # If the user is a member of the maximum number of groups (usually 16),
       # sudo will query the group database directly to be sure to include
       # the full list of groups.
       #
       # On some systems, this can be expensive so the behavior is configurable.
       # The "group_source" setting has three possible values:
       #   static   - use the user's list of groups returned by the kernel.
       #   dynamic  - query the group database to find the list of groups.
       #   adaptive - if user is in less than the maximum number of groups.
       #              use the kernel list, else query the group database.
       #
       #Set group_source static

       #
       # Sudo interface probing:
       #   Set probe_interfaces true|false
       #
       # By default, sudo will probe the system's network interfaces and
       # pass the IP address of each enabled interface to the policy plugin.
       # On systems with a large number of virtual interfaces this may take
       # a noticeable amount of time.
       #
       #Set probe_interfaces false

       #
       # Sudo debug files:
       #   Debug program /path/to/debug_log subsystem@priority[,subsyste@priority]
       #
       # Sudo and related programs support logging debug information to a file.
       # The program is typically sudo, sudoers.so, sudoreplay, or visudo.
       #
       # Subsystems vary based on the program; "all" matches all subsystems.
       # Priority may be crit, err, warn, notice, diag, info, trace, or debug.
       # Multiple subsystem@priority may be specified, separated by a comma.
       #
       #Debug sudo /var/log/sudo_debug all@debug
       #Debug sudoers.so /var/log/sudoers_debug all@debug

SEE ALSO
       sudo_plugin(5), sudoers(5), sudo(8)

AUTHORS
       Many people have worked on sudo over the years; this version consists of code written primar‐
       ily by:

             Todd C. Miller

       See the CONTRIBUTORS.md file in the  sudo  distribution  (https://www.sudo.ws/about/contribu‐
       tors/) for an exhaustive list of people who have contributed to sudo.

BUGS
       If   you   believe  you  have  found  a  bug  in  sudo,  you  can  submit  a  bug  report  at
       https://bugzilla.sudo.ws/

SUPPORT
       Limited   free   support   is   available   via   the   sudo-users    mailing    list,    see
       https://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  dis‐
       claimed.  See the LICENSE.md file distributed with sudo or https://www.sudo.ws/about/license/
       for complete details.

Sudo 1.9.15p5                             November 6, 2023                              SUDO.CONF(5)
SUDO.CONF(5)
NAME DESCRIPTION
Plugin configuration Path settings Other settings Debug settings
FILES EXAMPLES SEE ALSO AUTHORS BUGS SUPPORT DISCLAIMER

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