man > SUDOERS_TIMESTAMP(5)

SUDOERS_TIMESTAMP(5)                     File Formats Manual                    SUDOERS_TIMESTAMP(5)

NAME
       sudoers_timestamp — Sudoers Time Stamp Format

DESCRIPTION
       The sudoers plugin uses per-user-ID time stamp files for credential caching.  Once a user has
       been  authenticated,  they  may  use  sudo  without a password for a short period of time (15
       minutes unless overridden by the timestamp_timeout option).  By default, sudoers uses a sepa‐
       rate record for each terminal, which means that a user's  login  sessions  are  authenticated
       separately.   The  timestamp_type  option can be used to select the type of time stamp record
       sudoers will use.

       A multi-record time stamp file format was introduced in sudo 1.8.10 that uses a  single  file
       per user.  Previously, a separate file was used for each user and terminal combination unless
       tty-based  time  stamps  were disabled.  The new format is extensible and records of multiple
       types and versions may coexist within the same file.

       All records, regardless of type or version, begin with a 16-bit version number and  a  16-bit
       record size.

       Time stamp records have the following structure:

       /* Time stamp entry types */
       #define TS_GLOBAL               0x01    /* not restricted by tty or ppid */
       #define TS_TTY                  0x02    /* restricted by tty */
       #define TS_PPID                 0x03    /* restricted by ppid */
       #define TS_LOCKEXCL             0x04    /* special lock record */

       /* Time stamp flags */
       #define TS_DISABLED             0x01    /* entry disabled */
       #define TS_ANYUID               0x02    /* ignore uid, only valid in key */

       struct timestamp_entry {
           unsigned short version;     /* version number */
           unsigned short size;        /* entry size */
           unsigned short type;        /* TS_GLOBAL, TS_TTY, TS_PPID */
           unsigned short flags;       /* TS_DISABLED, TS_ANYUID */
           uid_t auth_uid;             /* uid to authenticate as */
           pid_t sid;                  /* session ID associated with tty/ppid */
           struct timespec start_time; /* session/ppid start time */
           struct timespec ts;         /* time stamp (CLOCK_MONOTONIC) */
           union {
               dev_t ttydev;           /* tty device number */
               pid_t ppid;             /* parent pid */
           } u;
       };

       The timestamp_entry struct fields are as follows:

       version
             The  version number of the timestamp_entry struct.  New entries are created with a ver‐
             sion number of 2.  Records with different version numbers may coexist in the same  file
             but are not inter-operable.

       size  The size of the record in bytes.

       type  The record type, currently TS_GLOBAL, TS_TTY, or TS_PPID.

       flags
             Zero  or  more  record  flags which can be bit-wise ORed together.  Supported flags are
             TS_DISABLED, for records disabled via sudo -k and TS_ANYUID, which is  used  only  when
             matching records.

       auth_uid
             The  user-ID  that  was used for authentication.  Depending on the value of the rootpw,
             runaspw and targetpw options, the user-ID may be that of the invoking  user,  the  root
             user, the default runas user or the target user.

       sid   The  ID  of  the user's terminal session, if present.  The session ID is only used when
             matching records of type TS_TTY.

       start_time
             The start time of the session leader for records  of  type  TS_TTY  or  of  the  parent
             process  for records of type TS_PPID.  The start_time is used to help prevent re-use of
             a time stamp record after a user has logged out.  Not all systems support a  method  to
             easily retrieve a process's start time.  The start_time field was added in sudoers ver‐
             sion 1.8.22 for the second revision of the timestamp_entry struct.

       ts    The  actual time stamp.  A monotonic time source (which does not move backward) is used
             if the system supports it.  Where possible, sudoers uses a monotonic timer that  incre‐
             ments  even while the system is suspended.  The value of ts is updated each time a com‐
             mand is run via sudo.  If the difference between ts and the current time is  less  than
             the value of the timestamp_timeout option, no password is required.

       u.ttydev
             The  device  number  of  the  terminal  associated with the session for records of type
             TS_TTY.

       u.ppid
             The ID of the parent process for records of type TS_PPID.

LOCKING
       In sudoers versions 1.8.10 through 1.8.14, the entire time stamp file was locked  for  exclu‐
       sive  access  when  reading  or  writing to the file.  Starting in sudoers 1.8.15, individual
       records are locked in the time stamp file instead of the entire file and the lock is held for
       a longer period of time.  This scheme is described below.

       The first record in the time stamp file is of type TS_LOCKEXCL and is used as a  lock  record
       to  prevent  more  than one sudo process from adding a new record at the same time.  Once the
       desired time stamp record has been located or created (and locked), the TS_LOCKEXCL record is
       unlocked.  The lock on the individual time stamp record, however, is held  until  authentica‐
       tion  is complete.  This allows sudoers to avoid prompting for a password multiple times when
       it is used more than once in a pipeline.

       Records of type TS_GLOBAL cannot be locked for a long period of time since doing so would in‐
       terfere with other sudo processes.  Instead, a separate lock record is used to prevent multi‐
       ple sudo processes using the same terminal (or parent process ID) from prompting for a  pass‐
       word as the same time.

SEE ALSO
       sudoers(5), sudo(8)

HISTORY
       Originally, sudo used a single zero-length file per user and the file's modification time was
       used  as  the  time stamp.  Later versions of sudo added restrictions on the ownership of the
       time stamp files and directory as well as checks on the validity of the  time  stamp  itself.
       Notable changes were introduced in the following sudo versions:

       1.4.0
             Support  for  tty-based time stamp file was added by appending the terminal name to the
             time stamp file name.

       1.6.2
             The time stamp file was replaced by a per-user directory which contained any  tty-based
             time stamp files.

       1.6.3p2
             The target user name was added to the time stamp file name when the targetpw option was
             set.

       1.7.3
             Information  about the terminal device was stored in tty-based time stamp files for va‐
             lidity checks.  This included the terminal device numbers, inode number and, on systems
             where it was not updated when the device was written to, the inode change  time.   This
             helped prevent re-use of the time stamp file after logout.

       1.8.6p7
             The  terminal  session  ID was added to tty-based time stamp files to prevent re-use of
             the time stamp by the same user in a different terminal session.  It also  helped  pre‐
             vent  re-use of the time stamp file on systems where the terminal device's inode change
             time was updated by writing.

       1.8.10
             A new, multi-record time stamp file format was introduced that uses a single  file  per
             user.  The terminal device's change time was not included since most systems now update
             the change time after a write is performed as required by POSIX.

       1.8.15
             Individual records are locked in the time stamp file instead of the entire file and the
             lock is held until authentication is complete.

       1.8.22
             The  start  time of the terminal session leader or parent process is now stored in non-
             global time stamp records.  This prevents re-use of the time stamp file after logout in
             most cases.

             Support was added for the kernel-based tty time stamps available in  OpenBSD  which  do
             not use an on-disk time stamp file.

       1.9.15
             Time  stamp  file  path names are now based on the invoking user-ID instead of the user
             name.  This avoids problems with user names that include a path separator character.

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                            September 20, 2023                     SUDOERS_TIMESTAMP(5)
SUDOERS_TIMESTAMP(5) □✕
NAME DESCRIPTION LOCKING SEE ALSO HISTORY AUTHORS BUGS SUPPORT DISCLAIMER

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