1 What's new in Sudo 1.7.2?
3 * A new #includedir directive is available in sudoers. This can be
4 used to implement an /etc/sudo.d directory. Files in an includedir
5 are not edited by visudo unless they contain a syntax error.
7 * The -g option did not work properly when only setting the group
8 (and not the user). Also, in -l mode the wrong user was displayed
9 for sudoers entries where only the group was allowed to be set.
11 * Fixed a problem with the alias checking in visudo which
12 could prevent visudo from exiting.
14 * Sudo will now correctly parse the shell-style /etc/environment
15 file format used by pam_env on Linux.
17 * When doing password and group database lookups, sudo will only
18 cache an entry by name or by id, depending on how the entry was
19 looked up. Previously, sudo would cache by both name and id
20 from a single lookup, but this breaks sites that have multiple
21 password or group database names that map to the same uid or
24 * User and group names in sudoers may now be enclosed in double
25 quotes to avoid having to escape special characters.
27 * BSM audit fixes when changing to a non-root uid.
29 * Experimental non-Unix group support. Currently only works with
30 Quest Authorization Services and allows Active Directory groups
33 * For Netscape/Mozilla-derived LDAP SDKs the certificate and key
34 paths may be specified as a directory or a file. However, version
35 5.0 of the SDK only appears to support using a directory (despite
36 documentation to the contrary). If SSL client initialization
37 fails and the certificate or key paths look like they could be
38 default file name, strip off the last path element and try again.
40 * A setenv() compatibility fix for Linux systems, where a NULL
41 value is treated the same as an empty string and the variable
42 name is checked against the NULL pointer.
44 What's new in Sudo 1.7.1?
46 * A new Defaults option "pwfeedback" will cause sudo to provide visual
47 feedback when the user is entering a password.
49 * A new Defaults option "fast_glob" will cause sudo to use the fnmatch()
50 function for file name globbing instead of glob(). When this option
51 is enabled, sudo will not check the file system when expanding wildcards.
52 This is faster but a side effect is that relative paths with wildcard
55 * New BSM audit support for systems that support it such as FreeBSD
58 * The file name specified with the #include directive may now include
59 a %h escape which is expanded to the short form of hostname.
61 * The -k flag may now be specified along with a command, causing the
62 user's timestamp file to be ignored.
64 * New support for Tivoli-based LDAP START_TLS, present in AIX.
66 * New support for /etc/netsvc.conf on AIX.
68 * The unused alias checks in visudo now handle the case of an alias
69 referring to another alias.
71 What's new in Sudo 1.7.0?
73 * Rewritten parser that converts sudoers into a set of data structures.
74 This eliminates a number of ordering issues and makes it possible to
75 apply sudoers Defaults entries before searching for the command.
76 It also adds support for per-command Defaults specifications.
78 * Sudoers now supports a #include facility to allow the inclusion of other
81 * Sudo's -l (list) flag has been enhanced:
82 o applicable Defaults options are now listed
83 o a command argument can be specified for testing whether a user
84 may run a specific command.
85 o a new -U flag can be used in conjunction with "sudo -l" to allow
86 root (or a user with "sudo ALL") list another user's privileges.
88 * A new -g flag has been added to allow the user to specify a
89 primary group to run the command as. The sudoers syntax has been
90 extended to include a group section in the Runas specification.
92 * A uid may now be used anywhere a username is valid.
94 * The "secure_path" run-time Defaults option has been restored.
96 * Password and group data is now cached for fast lookups.
98 * The file descriptor at which sudo starts closing all open files is now
99 configurable via sudoers and, optionally, the command line.
101 * Visudo will now warn about aliases that are defined but not used.
103 * The -i and -s command line flags now take an optional command
104 to be run via the shell. Previously, the argument was passed
105 to the shell as a script to run.
107 * Improved LDAP support. SASL authentication may now be used in
108 conjunction when connecting to an LDAP server. The krb5_ccname
109 parameter in ldap.conf may be used to enable Kerberos.
111 * Support for /etc/nsswitch.conf. LDAP users may now use nsswitch.conf
112 to specify the sudoers order. E.g.:
114 to check LDAP, then /etc/sudoers. The default is "files", even
115 when LDAP support is compiled in. This differs from sudo 1.6
116 where LDAP was always consulted first.
118 * Support for /etc/environment on AIX and Linux. If sudo is run
119 with the -i flag, the contents of /etc/environment are used to
120 populate the new environment that is passed to the command being
123 * If no terminal is available or if the new -A flag is specified,
124 sudo will use a helper program to read the password if one is
125 configured. Typically, this is a graphical password prompter
128 * A new Defaults option, "mailfrom" that sets the value of the
129 "From:" field in the warning/error mail. If unspecified, the
130 login name of the invoking user is used.
132 * A new Defaults option, "env_file" that refers to a file containing
133 environment variables to be set in the command being run.
135 * A new flag, -n, may be used to indicate that sudo should not
136 prompt the user for a password and, instead, exit with an error
137 if authentication is required.
139 * If sudo needs to prompt for a password and it is unable to disable
140 echo (and no askpass program is defined), it will refuse to run
141 unless the "visiblepw" Defaults option has been specified.
143 * Prior to version 1.7.0, hitting enter/return at the Password: prompt
144 would exit sudo. In sudo 1.7.0 and beyond, this is treated as
145 an empty password. To exit sudo, the user must press ^C or ^D
148 * visudo will now check the sudoers file owner and mode in -c (check)
149 mode when the -s (strict) flag is specified.
151 * A new Defaults option "umask_override" will cause sudo to set the
152 umask specified in sudoers even if it is more permissive than the
153 invoking user's umask.