1 What's new in Sudo 1.8.3p2?
3 * Fixed a format string vulnerability when the sudo binary (or a
4 symbolic link to the sudo binary) contains printf format escapes
5 and the -D (debugging) flag is used.
7 What's new in Sudo 1.8.3p1?
9 * Fixed a crash in the monitor process on Solaris when NOPASSWD
10 was specified or when authentication was disabled.
12 * Fixed matching of a Runas_Alias in the group section of a
15 What's new in Sudo 1.8.3?
17 * Fixed expansion of strftime() escape sequences in the "log_dir"
20 * Esperanto, Italian and Japanese translations from translationproject.org.
22 * Sudo will now use PAM by default on AIX 6 and higher.
24 * Added --enable-werror configure option for gcc's -Werror flag.
26 * Visudo no longer assumes all editors support the +linenumber
27 command line argument. It now uses a whitelist of editors known
28 to support the option.
30 * Fixed matching of network addresses when a netmask is specified
31 but the address is not the first one in the CIDR block.
33 * The configure script now check whether or not errno.h declares
34 the errno variable. Previously, sudo would always declare errno
35 itself for older systems that don't declare it in errno.h.
37 * The NOPASSWD tag is now honored for denied commands too, which
38 matches historic sudo behavior (prior to sudo 1.7.0).
40 * Sudo now honors the "DEREF" setting in ldap.conf which controls
41 how alias dereferencing is done during an LDAP search.
43 * A symbol conflict with the pam_ssh_agent_auth PAM module that
44 would cause a crash been resolved.
46 * The inability to load a group provider plugin is no longer
49 * A potential crash in the utmp handling code has been fixed.
51 * Two PAM session issues have been resolved. In previous versions
52 of sudo, the PAM session was opened as one user and closed as
53 another. Additionally, if no authentication was performed, the
54 PAM session would never be closed.
56 * Sudo will now work correctly with LDAP-based sudoers using TLS
57 or SSL on Debian systems.
59 * The LOGNAME, USER and USERNAME environment variables are preserved
60 correctly again in sudoedit mode.
62 What's new in Sudo 1.8.2?
64 * Sudo, visudo, sudoreplay and the sudoers plug-in now have natural
65 language support (NLS). This can be disabled by passing configure
66 the --disable-nls option. Sudo will use gettext(), if available,
67 to display translated messages. All translations are coordinated
68 via The Translation Project, http://translationproject.org/.
70 * Plug-ins are now loaded with the RTLD_GLOBAL flag instead of
71 RTLD_LOCAL. This fixes missing symbol problems in PAM modules
72 on certain platforms, such as FreeBSD and SuSE Linux Enterprise.
74 * I/O logging is now supported for commands run in background mode
75 (using sudo's -b flag).
77 * Group ownership of the sudoers file is now only enforced when
78 the file mode on sudoers allows group readability or writability.
80 * Visudo now checks the contents of an alias and warns about cycles
81 when the alias is expanded.
83 * If the user specifes a group via sudo's -g option that matches
84 the target user's group in the password database, it is now
85 allowed even if no groups are present in the Runas_Spec.
87 * The sudo Makefiles now have more complete dependencies which are
88 automatically generated instead of being maintained manually.
90 * The "use_pty" sudoers option is now correctly passed back to the
91 sudo front end. This was missing in previous versions of sudo
92 1.8 which prevented "use_pty" from being honored.
94 * "sudo -i command" now works correctly with the bash version
95 2.0 and higher. Previously, the .bash_profile would not be
96 sourced prior to running the command unless bash was built with
97 NON_INTERACTIVE_LOGIN_SHELLS defined.
99 * When matching groups in the sudoers file, sudo will now match
100 based on the name of the group instead of the group ID. This can
101 substantially reduce the number of group lookups for sudoers
102 files that contain a large number of groups.
104 * Multi-factor authentication is now supported on AIX.
106 * Added support for non-RFC 4517 compliant LDAP servers that require
107 that seconds be present in a timestamp, such as Tivoli Directory Server.
109 * If the group vector is to be preserved, the PATH search for the
110 command is now done with the user's original group vector.
112 * For LDAP-based sudoers, the "runas_default" sudoOption now works
113 properly in a sudoRole that contains a sudoCommand.
115 * Spaces in command line arguments for "sudo -s" and "sudo -i" are
116 now escaped with a backslash when checking the security policy.
118 What's new in Sudo 1.8.1p2?
120 * Two-character CIDR-style IPv4 netmasks are now matched correctly
123 * A build error with MIT Kerberos V has been resolved.
125 * A crash on HP-UX in the sudoers plugin when wildcards are
126 present in the sudoers file has been resolved.
128 * Sudo now works correctly on Tru64 Unix again.
130 What's new in Sudo 1.8.1p1?
132 * Fixed a problem on AIX where sudo was unable to set the final
133 uid if the PAM module modified the effective uid.
135 * A non-existent includedir is now treated the same as an empty
136 directory and not reported as an error.
138 * Removed extraneous parens in LDAP filter when sudoers_search_filter
139 is enabled that can cause an LDAP search error.
141 * Fixed a "make -j" problem for "make install".
143 What's new in Sudo 1.8.1?
145 * A new LDAP setting, sudoers_search_filter, has been added to
146 ldap.conf. This setting can be used to restrict the set of
147 records returned by the LDAP query. Based on changes from Matthew
150 * White space is now permitted within a User_List when used in
151 conjunction with a per-user Defaults definition.
153 * A group ID (%#gid) may now be specified in a User_List or Runas_List.
154 Likewise, for non-Unix groups the syntax is %:#gid.
156 * Support for double-quoted words in the sudoers file has been fixed.
157 The change in 1.7.5 for escaping the double quote character
158 caused the double quoting to only be available at the beginning
161 * The fix for resuming a suspended shell in 1.7.5 caused problems
162 with resuming non-shells on Linux. Sudo will now save the process
163 group ID of the program it is running on suspend and restore it
164 when resuming, which fixes both problems.
166 * A bug that could result in corrupted output in "sudo -l" has been
169 * Sudo will now create an entry in the utmp (or utmpx) file when
170 allocating a pseudo-tty (e.g. when logging I/O). The "set_utmp"
171 and "utmp_runas" sudoers file options can be used to control this.
172 Other policy plugins may use the "set_utmp" and "utmp_user"
173 entries in the command_info list.
175 * The sudoers policy now stores the TSID field in the logs
176 even when the "iolog_file" sudoers option is defined to a value
177 other than %{sessid}. Previously, the TSID field was only
178 included in the log file when the "iolog_file" option was set
179 to its default value.
181 * The sudoreplay utility now supports arbitrary session IDs.
182 Previously, it would only work with the base-36 session IDs
183 that the sudoers plugin uses by default.
185 * Sudo now passes "run_shell=true" to the policy plugin in the
186 settings list when sudo's -s command line option is specified.
187 The sudoers policy plugin uses this to implement the "set_home"
188 sudoers option which was missing from sudo 1.8.0.
190 * The "noexec" functionality has been moved out of the sudoers
191 policy plugin and into the sudo front-end, which matches the
192 behavior documented in the plugin writer's guide. As a result,
193 the path to the noexec file is now specified in the sudo.conf
194 file instead of the sudoers file.
196 * On Solaris 10, the PRIV_PROC_EXEC privilege is now used to
197 implement the "noexec" feature. Previously, this was implemented
198 via the LD_PRELOAD environment variable.
200 * The exit values for "sudo -l", "sudo -v" and "sudo -l command"
201 have been fixed in the sudoers policy plugin.
203 * The sudoers policy plugin now passes the login class, if any,
204 back to the sudo front-end.
206 * The sudoers policy plugin was not being linked with requisite
207 libraries in certain configurations.
209 * Sudo now parses command line arguments before loading any plugins.
210 This allows "sudo -V" or "sudo -h" to work even if there is a problem
213 * Plugins are now linked with the static version of libgcc to allow
214 the plugin to run on a system where no shared libgcc is installed,
215 or where it is installed in a different location.
217 What's new in Sudo 1.8.0?
219 * Sudo has been refactored to use a modular framework that can
220 support third-party policy and I/O logging plugins. The default
221 plugin is "sudoers" which provides the traditional sudo functionality.
222 See the sudo_plugin manual for details on the plugin API and the
223 sample in the plugins directory for a simple example.
225 What's new in Sudo 1.7.5?
227 * When using visudo in check mode, a file named "-" may be used to
228 check sudoers data on the standard input.
230 * Sudo now only fetches shadow password entries when using the
231 password database directly for authentication.
233 * Password and group entries are now cached using the same key
234 that was used to look them up. This fixes a problem when looking
235 up entries by name if the name in the retrieved entry does not
236 match the name used to look it up. This may happen on some systems
237 that do case insensitive lookups or that truncate long names.
239 * GCC will no longer display warnings on glibc systems that use
240 the warn_unused_result attribute for write(2) and other system calls.
242 * If a PAM account management module denies access, sudo now prints
243 a more useful error message and stops trying to validate the user.
245 * Fixed a potential hang on idle systems when the sudo-run process
248 * Sudo now includes a copy of zlib that will be used on systems
249 that do not have zlib installed.
251 * The --with-umask-override configure flag has been added to enable
252 the "umask_override" sudoers Defaults option at build time.
254 * Sudo now unblocks all signals on startup to avoid problems caused
255 by the parent process changing the default signal mask.
257 * LDAP Sudoers entries may now specify a time period for which
258 the entry is valid. This requires an updated sudoers schema
259 that includes the sudoNotBefore and sudoNotAfter attributes.
260 Support for timed entries must be explicitly enabled in the
261 ldap.conf file. Based on changes from Andreas Mueller.
263 * LDAP Sudoers entries may now specify a sudoOrder attribute that
264 determines the order in which matching entries are applied. The
265 last matching entry is used, just like file-based sudoers. This
266 requires an updated sudoers schema that includes the sudoOrder
267 attribute. Based on changes from Andreas Mueller.
269 * When run as sudoedit, or when given the -e flag, sudo now treats
270 command line arguments as pathnames. This means that slashes
271 in the sudoers file entry must explicitly match slashes in
272 the command line arguments. As a result, and entry such as:
273 user ALL = sudoedit /etc/*
274 will allow editing of /etc/motd but not /etc/security/default.
276 * NETWORK_TIMEOUT is now an alias for BIND_TIMELIMIT in ldap.conf for
277 compatibility with OpenLDAP configuration files.
279 * The LDAP API TIMEOUT parameter is now honored in ldap.conf.
281 * The I/O log directory may now be specified in the sudoers file.
283 * Sudo will no longer refuse to run if the sudoers file is writable
286 * Sudo now performs command line escaping for "sudo -s" and "sudo -i"
287 after validating the command so the sudoers entries do not need
288 to include the backslashes.
290 * Logging and email sending are now done in the locale specified
291 by the "sudoers_locale" setting ("C" by default). Email send by
292 sudo now includes MIME headers when "sudoers_locale" is not "C".
294 * The configure script has a new option, --disable-env-reset, to
295 allow one to change the default for the sudoers Default setting
296 "env_reset" at compile time.
298 * When logging "sudo -l command", sudo will now prepend "list "
299 to the command in the log line to distinguish between an
300 actual command invocation in the logs.
302 * Double-quoted group and user names may now include escaped double
303 quotes as part of the name. Previously this was a parse error.
305 * Sudo once again restores the state of the signal handlers it
306 modifies before executing the command. This allows sudo to be
307 used with the nohup command.
309 * Resuming a suspended shell now works properly when I/O logging
310 is not enabled (the I/O logging case was already correct).
312 What's new in Sudo 1.7.4p6?
314 * A bug has been fixed in the I/O logging support that could cause
315 visual artifacts in full-screen programs such as text editors.
317 What's new in Sudo 1.7.4p5?
319 * A bug has been fixed that would allow a command to be run without the
320 user entering a password when sudo's -g flag is used without the -u flag.
322 * If user has no supplementary groups, sudo will now fall back on checking
323 the group file explicitly, which restores historic sudo behavior.
325 * A crash has been fixed when sudo's -g flag is used without the -u flag
326 and the sudoers file contains an entry with no runas user or group listed.
328 * A crash has been fixed when the Solaris project support is enabled
329 and sudo's -g flag is used without the -u flag.
331 * Sudo no longer exits with an error when support for auditing is
332 compiled in but auditing is not enabled.
334 * Fixed a bug introduced in sudo 1.7.3 where the ticket file was not
335 being honored when the "targetpw" sudoers Defaults option was enabled.
337 * The LOG_INPUT and LOG_OUTPUT tags in sudoers are now parsed correctly.
339 * A crash has been fixed in "sudo -l" when sudo is built with auditing
340 support and the user is not allowed to run any commands on the host.
342 What's new in Sudo 1.7.4p4?
344 * A potential security issue has been fixed with respect to the handling
345 of sudo's -g command line option when -u is also specified. The flaw
346 may allow an attacker to run commands as a user that is not authorized
349 * A bug has been fixed where "sudo -l" output was incomplete if multiple
350 sudoers sources were defined in nsswitch.conf and there was an error
351 querying one of the sources.
353 * The log_input, log_output, and use_pty sudoers options now work correctly
354 on AIX. Previously, sudo would hang if they were enabled.
356 * The "make install" target now works correctly when sudo is built in a
357 directory other than the source directory.
359 * The "runas_default" sudoers setting now works properly in a per-command
362 * Suspending and resuming the bash shell when PAM is in use now works
363 correctly. The SIGCONT signal was not propagated to the child process.
365 What's new in Sudo 1.7.4p3?
367 * A bug has been fixed where duplicate HOME environment variables could be
368 present when the env_reset setting was disabled and the always_set_home
369 setting was enabled in sudoers.
371 * The value of sysconfdir is now substituted into the path to the sudoers.d
372 directory in the installed sudoers file.
374 * Compilation problems on IRIX and other platforms have been fixed.
376 * If multiple PAM "auth" actions are specified and the user enters ^C at
377 the password prompt, sudo will no longer prompt for a password for any
378 subsequent "auth" actions. Previously it was necessary to enter ^C for
381 What's new in Sudo 1.7.4p2?
383 * A bug where sudo could spin in a busy loop waiting for the child process
386 What's new in Sudo 1.7.4p1?
388 * A bug introduced in sudo 1.7.3 that prevented the -k and -K options from
389 functioning when the tty_tickets sudoers option is enabled has been fixed.
391 * Sudo no longer prints a warning when the -k or -K options are specified
392 and the ticket file does not exist.
394 * It is now easier to cross-compile sudo.
396 What's new in Sudo 1.7.4?
398 * Sudoedit will now preserve the file extension in the name of the
399 temporary file being edited. The extension is used by some
400 editors (such as emacs) to choose the editing mode.
402 * Time stamp files have moved from /var/run/sudo to either /var/db/sudo,
403 /var/lib/sudo or /var/adm/sudo. The directories are checked for
404 existence in that order. This prevents users from receiving the
405 sudo lecture every time the system reboots. Time stamp files older
406 than the boot time are ignored on systems where it is possible to
409 * The tty_tickets sudoers option is now enabled by default.
411 * Ancillary documentation (README files, LICENSE, etc) is now installed
412 in a sudo documentation directory.
414 * Sudo now recognizes "tls_cacert" as an alias for "tls_cacertfile"
417 * Defaults settings that are tied to a user, host or command may
418 now include the negation operator. For example:
419 Defaults:!millert lecture
420 will match any user but millert.
422 * The default PATH environment variable, used when no PATH variable
423 exists, now includes /usr/sbin and /sbin.
425 * Sudo now uses polypkg (http://rc.quest.com/topics/polypkg/)
426 for cross-platform packing.
428 * On Linux, sudo will now restore the nproc resource limit before
429 executing a command, unless the limit appears to have been modified
430 by pam_limits. This avoids a problem with bash scripts that open
431 more than 32 descriptors on SuSE Linux, where sysconf(_SC_CHILD_MAX)
432 will return -1 when RLIMIT_NPROC is set to RLIMIT_UNLIMITED (-1).
434 * The HOME and MAIL environment variables are now reset based on the
435 target user's password database entry when the env_reset sudoers option
436 is enabled (which is the case in the default configuration). Users
437 wishing to preserve the original values should use a sudoers entry like:
438 Defaults env_keep += HOME
439 to preserve the old value of HOME and
440 Defaults env_keep += MAIL
441 to preserve the old value of MAIL.
443 * Fixed a problem in the restoration of the AIX authdb registry setting.
445 * Sudo will now fork(2) and wait until the command has completed before
446 calling pam_close_session().
448 * The default syslog facility is now "authpriv" if the operating system
449 supports it, else "auth".
451 What's new in Sudo 1.7.3?
453 * Support for logging I/O for the command being run.
454 For more information, see the documentation for the "log_input"
455 and "log_output" Defaults options in the sudoers manual. Also
456 see the sudoreplay manual for how to replay I/O log sessions.
458 * The use_pty sudoers option can be used to force a command to be
459 run in a pseudo-pty, even when I/O logging is not enabled.
461 * On some systems, sudo can now detect when a user has logged out
462 and back in again when tty-based time stamps are in use. Supported
463 systems include Solaris systems with the devices file system,
464 Mac OS X, and Linux systems with the devpts filesystem (pseudo-ttys
467 * On AIX systems, the registry setting in /etc/security/user is
468 now taken into account when looking up users and groups. Sudo
469 now applies the correct the user and group ids when running a
470 command as a user whose account details come from a different
471 source (e.g. LDAP or DCE vs. local files).
473 * Support for multiple 'sudoers_base' and 'uri' entries in ldap.conf.
474 When multiple entries are listed, sudo will try each one in the
475 order in which they are specified.
477 * Sudo's SELinux support should now function correctly when running
478 commands as a non-root user and when one of stdin, stdout or stderr
481 * Sudo will now use the Linux audit system with configure with
482 the --with-linux-audit flag.
484 * Sudo now uses mbr_check_membership() on systems that support it
485 to determine group membership. Currently, only Darwin (Mac OS X)
488 * When the tty_tickets sudoers option is enabled but there is no
489 terminal device, sudo will no longer use or create a tty-based
490 ticket file. Previously, sudo would use a tty name of "unknown".
491 As a consequence, if a user has no terminal device, sudo will
492 now always prompt for a password.
494 * The passwd_timeout and timestamp_timeout options may now be
495 specified as floating point numbers for more granular timeout
498 * Negating the fqdn option in sudoers now works correctly when sudo
499 is configured with the --with-fqdn option. In previous versions
500 of sudo the fqdn was set before sudoers was parsed.
502 What's new in Sudo 1.7.2?
504 * A new #includedir directive is available in sudoers. This can be
505 used to implement an /etc/sudo.d directory. Files in an includedir
506 are not edited by visudo unless they contain a syntax error.
508 * The -g option did not work properly when only setting the group
509 (and not the user). Also, in -l mode the wrong user was displayed
510 for sudoers entries where only the group was allowed to be set.
512 * Fixed a problem with the alias checking in visudo which
513 could prevent visudo from exiting.
515 * Sudo will now correctly parse the shell-style /etc/environment
516 file format used by pam_env on Linux.
518 * When doing password and group database lookups, sudo will only
519 cache an entry by name or by id, depending on how the entry was
520 looked up. Previously, sudo would cache by both name and id
521 from a single lookup, but this breaks sites that have multiple
522 password or group database names that map to the same uid or
525 * User and group names in sudoers may now be enclosed in double
526 quotes to avoid having to escape special characters.
528 * BSM audit fixes when changing to a non-root uid.
530 * Experimental non-Unix group support. Currently only works with
531 Quest Authorization Services and allows Active Directory groups
534 * For Netscape/Mozilla-derived LDAP SDKs the certificate and key
535 paths may be specified as a directory or a file. However, version
536 5.0 of the SDK only appears to support using a directory (despite
537 documentation to the contrary). If SSL client initialization
538 fails and the certificate or key paths look like they could be
539 default file name, strip off the last path element and try again.
541 * A setenv() compatibility fix for Linux systems, where a NULL
542 value is treated the same as an empty string and the variable
543 name is checked against the NULL pointer.
545 What's new in Sudo 1.7.1?
547 * A new Defaults option "pwfeedback" will cause sudo to provide visual
548 feedback when the user is entering a password.
550 * A new Defaults option "fast_glob" will cause sudo to use the fnmatch()
551 function for file name globbing instead of glob(). When this option
552 is enabled, sudo will not check the file system when expanding wildcards.
553 This is faster but a side effect is that relative paths with wildcard
556 * New BSM audit support for systems that support it such as FreeBSD
559 * The file name specified with the #include directive may now include
560 a %h escape which is expanded to the short form of hostname.
562 * The -k flag may now be specified along with a command, causing the
563 user's timestamp file to be ignored.
565 * New support for Tivoli-based LDAP START_TLS, present in AIX.
567 * New support for /etc/netsvc.conf on AIX.
569 * The unused alias checks in visudo now handle the case of an alias
570 referring to another alias.
572 What's new in Sudo 1.7.0?
574 * Rewritten parser that converts sudoers into a set of data structures.
575 This eliminates a number of ordering issues and makes it possible to
576 apply sudoers Defaults entries before searching for the command.
577 It also adds support for per-command Defaults specifications.
579 * Sudoers now supports a #include facility to allow the inclusion of other
580 sudoers-format files.
582 * Sudo's -l (list) flag has been enhanced:
583 o applicable Defaults options are now listed
584 o a command argument can be specified for testing whether a user
585 may run a specific command.
586 o a new -U flag can be used in conjunction with "sudo -l" to allow
587 root (or a user with "sudo ALL") list another user's privileges.
589 * A new -g flag has been added to allow the user to specify a
590 primary group to run the command as. The sudoers syntax has been
591 extended to include a group section in the Runas specification.
593 * A uid may now be used anywhere a username is valid.
595 * The "secure_path" run-time Defaults option has been restored.
597 * Password and group data is now cached for fast lookups.
599 * The file descriptor at which sudo starts closing all open files is now
600 configurable via sudoers and, optionally, the command line.
602 * Visudo will now warn about aliases that are defined but not used.
604 * The -i and -s command line flags now take an optional command
605 to be run via the shell. Previously, the argument was passed
606 to the shell as a script to run.
608 * Improved LDAP support. SASL authentication may now be used in
609 conjunction when connecting to an LDAP server. The krb5_ccname
610 parameter in ldap.conf may be used to enable Kerberos.
612 * Support for /etc/nsswitch.conf. LDAP users may now use nsswitch.conf
613 to specify the sudoers order. E.g.:
615 to check LDAP, then /etc/sudoers. The default is "files", even
616 when LDAP support is compiled in. This differs from sudo 1.6
617 where LDAP was always consulted first.
619 * Support for /etc/environment on AIX and Linux. If sudo is run
620 with the -i flag, the contents of /etc/environment are used to
621 populate the new environment that is passed to the command being
624 * If no terminal is available or if the new -A flag is specified,
625 sudo will use a helper program to read the password if one is
626 configured. Typically, this is a graphical password prompter
629 * A new Defaults option, "mailfrom" that sets the value of the
630 "From:" field in the warning/error mail. If unspecified, the
631 login name of the invoking user is used.
633 * A new Defaults option, "env_file" that refers to a file containing
634 environment variables to be set in the command being run.
636 * A new flag, -n, may be used to indicate that sudo should not
637 prompt the user for a password and, instead, exit with an error
638 if authentication is required.
640 * If sudo needs to prompt for a password and it is unable to disable
641 echo (and no askpass program is defined), it will refuse to run
642 unless the "visiblepw" Defaults option has been specified.
644 * Prior to version 1.7.0, hitting enter/return at the Password: prompt
645 would exit sudo. In sudo 1.7.0 and beyond, this is treated as
646 an empty password. To exit sudo, the user must press ^C or ^D
649 * visudo will now check the sudoers file owner and mode in -c (check)
650 mode when the -s (strict) flag is specified.
652 * A new Defaults option "umask_override" will cause sudo to set the
653 umask specified in sudoers even if it is more permissive than the
654 invoking user's umask.