[SOLVED] sudo: changed behavior

adventurer · 2022-05-26 16:47:58

I had been managing .pacnew and .pacsave files as suggested by the wiki by executing

sudo DIFFPROG=meld pacdiff

This has always worked flawlessly. Now - after I had been out of town for 4 weeks - I got the error message:

sudo: sorry, you are not allowed to set the following environment variables: DIFFPROG

I solved the problem by executing

sudo env DIFFPROG=meld pacdiff

But I still wonder what caused that change. The last update for sudo arrived on 2022-03-07, and I definitely used above code after that date without any problems. So what else could have changed that behavior?

Last edited by adventurer (2022-05-30 10:27:20)

mpan · 2022-05-26 20:10:23

Here is the current “/etc/sudoers” as shipped with sudo 1.9.10-1. Compare it with yours and see if you can spot any relevant differences:

## sudoers file.
##
## This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.
## Failure to use 'visudo' may result in syntax or file permission errors
## that prevent sudo from running.
##
## See the sudoers man page for the details on how to write a sudoers file.
##

##
## Host alias specification
##
## Groups of machines. These may include host names (optionally with wildcards),
## IP addresses, network numbers or netgroups.
# Host_Alias	WEBSERVERS = www1, www2, www3

##
## User alias specification
##
## Groups of users.  These may consist of user names, uids, Unix groups,
## or netgroups.
# User_Alias	ADMINS = millert, dowdy, mikef

##
## Cmnd alias specification
##
## Groups of commands.  Often used to group related commands together.
# Cmnd_Alias	PROCESSES = /usr/bin/nice, /bin/kill, /usr/bin/renice, \
# 			    /usr/bin/pkill, /usr/bin/top
# Cmnd_Alias	REBOOT = /sbin/halt, /sbin/reboot, /sbin/poweroff

##
## Defaults specification
##
## You may wish to keep some of the following environment variables
## when running commands via sudo.
##
## Locale settings
# Defaults env_keep += "LANG LANGUAGE LINGUAS LC_* _XKB_CHARSET"
##
## Run X applications through sudo; HOME is used to find the
## .Xauthority file.  Note that other programs use HOME to find   
## configuration files and this may lead to privilege escalation!
# Defaults env_keep += "HOME"
##
## X11 resource path settings
# Defaults env_keep += "XAPPLRESDIR XFILESEARCHPATH XUSERFILESEARCHPATH"
##
## Desktop path settings
# Defaults env_keep += "QTDIR KDEDIR"
##
## Allow sudo-run commands to inherit the callers' ConsoleKit session
# Defaults env_keep += "XDG_SESSION_COOKIE"
##
## Uncomment to enable special input methods.  Care should be taken as
## this may allow users to subvert the command being run via sudo.
# Defaults env_keep += "XMODIFIERS GTK_IM_MODULE QT_IM_MODULE QT_IM_SWITCHER"
##
## Uncomment to use a hard-coded PATH instead of the user's to find commands
# Defaults secure_path="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin"
##
## Uncomment to send mail if the user does not enter the correct password.
# Defaults mail_badpass
##
## Uncomment to enable logging of a command's output, except for
## sudoreplay and reboot.  Use sudoreplay to play back logged sessions.
# Defaults log_output
# Defaults!/usr/bin/sudoreplay !log_output
# Defaults!/usr/local/bin/sudoreplay !log_output
# Defaults!REBOOT !log_output

##
## Runas alias specification
##

##
## User privilege specification
##
root ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

## Uncomment to allow members of group wheel to execute any command
# %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

## Same thing without a password
# %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

## Uncomment to allow members of group sudo to execute any command
# %sudo	ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

## Uncomment to allow any user to run sudo if they know the password
## of the user they are running the command as (root by default).
# Defaults targetpw  # Ask for the password of the target user
# ALL ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL  # WARNING: only use this together with 'Defaults targetpw'

## Read drop-in files from /etc/sudoers.d
@includedir /etc/sudoers.d

Also see if there is nothing in “/etc/sudoers.d” and, if there is, if it can be the culprit.

adventurer · 2022-05-30 09:35:21

The only relevant difference is that my sudoers file contained

# Reset environment by default

Defaults      env_reset

which is actually the default according to the sudoers man page. However, commenting that entry doesn't change anything for me.

seth · 2022-05-30 09:54:05

The only relevant difference

Can you please post the actual sudoers?
What might be very relevant is if you've a specific rule for the command (nopasswd etc) because that will "unimply" setenv.

adventurer · 2022-05-30 10:26:58

Thanks, seth! I had added /usr/bin/pacdiff to ALL=NOPASSWD and forgotten about it. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Marking this as solved.

Arch Linux

#1 2022-05-26 16:47:58

[SOLVED] sudo: changed behavior

#2 2022-05-26 20:10:23

Re: [SOLVED] sudo: changed behavior

#3 2022-05-30 09:35:21

Re: [SOLVED] sudo: changed behavior

#4 2022-05-30 09:54:05

Re: [SOLVED] sudo: changed behavior

#5 2022-05-30 10:26:58

Re: [SOLVED] sudo: changed behavior

Board footer