Can I find which user used sudo to run my script? - bash

I have googling around for long time but couldn't actually find a reliable way.
This is what I want:
Use Bash script, check if user is actually root root, not the user with sudo command.
I have tried many ways , like id -u, $EUID, whoami, etc., but all of them return same value when run as root and using sudo.

You could check if there are some environment variables set by sudo:
set | grep SUDO
Output:
SUDO_COMMAND=/bin/bash
SUDO_GID=1000
SUDO_UID=1000
SUDO_USER=user1

Related

run inline shell script as root

I have a user, who's a passwordless sudoer. I need to execute shell script file with him, and make him execute one block as sudo. E.g:
su root <<"AS_ROOT"
# do something with my linux
AS_ROOT
But nothing works. I tried:
su - root <<...
sudo -s -- <<...
It barks back at me. I'm on ubuntu 16.04 lts.
Thank you.
As Cyrus points out, su is a different utility to which sudo's configuration doesn't apply.
It sounds like you're looking for something like this:
sudo -s <<'AS_ROOT'
echo "Hi from $USER."
AS_ROOT
This should output Hi from root.
Note that -s is needed to tell sudo to create a shell in order to interpret the commands passed via stdin (the here-doc). That shell is the current user's default shell, as reflected in environment variable $SHELL.

Bash script - change to root then exit root

If I am in the middle running a bash script, is there any way to switch over to root user, process a command, and then exit root mode? For example, I'd like to include these commands in the middle of a bash script:
sudo su
umount /home/user/myMount
exit
The problem is that after the first line runs, the shell goes into root mode, but then stops execution. Of course, I could create and execute a second script at this point, but this defeats the purpose of scripting since I could just type the commands myself.
The other obvious idea is to run the script from with the root user at the outset. However, some of the other commands in this script fail if I am the root user since they would expose security vulnerabilities with this much access.
So, I need a way to get into the root and then exit out of it.
Thanks.
Specify a Command
The sudo command can take a command and optional arguments. For example:
sudo umount /home/user/myMount
This will run only the specified command and its arguments as root. If you want to run the command as another user, you can use the -u flag. For example, to run umount as Fred, you could use:
sudo -u fred umount /home/user/myMount
While there are certainly other ways to address this issue, this is by far the simplest and most common.
In order to perform the umount as root, use
sudo umount /home/user/myMount

How to run 'at' as a different user?

I often need to run at jobs as a different user. I've always done something like
$ echo "$PWD/batchToRun -parameters" | sudo su - otheruser -c "at now"
batchToRun is also scheduled to run via otheruser's crontab. This works out well until batchToRun starts depending on subtle side-effects of settings of environmental variables -- like LANG (sort anyone?) -- that are passed in from the environment of the user running sudo.
I typically don't want to log in as otheruser; it's a semi-privileged account and I would like a "paper trail" of its associated activity so that I can go back and see exactly what was done, by whom, when, etc.
Besides the obvious rewriting batchToRun to be independent of such settings, what's a good way to ensure that the sudoer's environment doesn't contaminate the target environment?
Note: this is on FC7 (sudo version 1.6.8p12) and other old distros, so any shiny new features of sudo/su/at (notably, the ability to pass an argument with -i to sudo) are outside my grasp.
Update: it turns out that the su - otheruser is actually a sufficient firewall between the users and that my contamination is coming from something in the interactive startup sequence. I still like the env edit capability, though.
You could strip the environment before you run at:
echo "command ..." | env - PATH="$PATH" sudo su - otheruser -c "at now"
You can also arrange for sudo to do this for you by setting the env_reset option. For example, you could give your user access to run the at command as otheruser directly (rather than sudo to root and then to the other user) and then set env_reset with a Defaults command for that user or that command (see the sudoers man page).
But the above is probably the easiest solution without changing how you're generally doing things today.
Any "contamination" of otheruser's environment should be limited to the at command's environment. When it actually comes time to run batchToRun, it will be run by otheruser using its typical default environment. That is, only at now is run in the shell spawned by the su sudo command.

How to use sudo inside of a Run Script build phase in Xcode 4?

I need use execute a command inside of a script in a Run Script build phase in Xcode 4 using sudo. However, the compiler complains:
sudo: no tty present and no askpass program specified
Anyone have a clever solution for this problem?
One solution is to place the sudo password in an executable shell script like the following:
#!/bin/bash
echo thesudopassword
This shell script might be called password.sh
Then, setup the environment variable SUDO_ASKPASS=password.sh
Once this is setup, the -A option can be passed to sudo. This option uses the ASKPASS program to obtain the sudo password. The ASKPASS program need only write the password to stdout.
So, for example,
sudo -A ditto -V /tmp/testserver.dst /
This is obviously a rather insecure solution, but it does work.
Two ideas that haven't been suggested yet, both of which are probably better/safer than the currently accepted answer:
First option would be to put the part of the script that needs to be run as root in a script file (.sh or something), and then make it setuid as root: chmod go-w,+sx scriptfile, sudo chown root scriptfile. This means that script will automatically run as root, which avoids you needing to authenticate to run it (just to change it). As long as its operation isn't subject to user input, this should be quite safe. (Of course, if you make a script that takes an input argument and deletes it or runs it, or does most anything else with it, that would not be safe.)
Second option would be to use applescript (possibly via osascript). Applescript allows you to do shell script "sudo command goes here" with administrator privileges, which will pop up a graphical dialog asking for a password.
The first of these options would be good for an automated environment, though it might not deal well with (for example) being checked into an SCM, or being sent to another user. The second option would work better with that, but requires a password input every time, so doesn't work as well for an automated build script.
Another solution to this problem is to modify sudoers file and add your account to it and state that you should never be asked for the sudo password. To accomplish this is fairly straightforward:
run:
sudo visudo
In the User privilege specification section add a line that looks like
youraccountname ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
Of course, this can be a dangerous thing to do, so be careful. I would suggest reading the man page for sudoers and visudo before going this route.
After much searching I found the following solution.
https://forum.juce.com/t/build-script-for-automatically-moving-built-aus-into-components-folder-xcode/13112
Summary
Create a keychain and store your admin password in the keychain
Create a script which uses /usr/bin/security to access the password In your run script,
Set the ASK_PASS env variable and use the -A option with sudo
You can either run commands directly as a administrator with the following (changing echo YourCommandHere > /tmp/hello to your command):
osascript -e 'do shell script "sudo echo YourCommandHere > /tmp/hello " with administrator privileges'
Or run a script in your source directory using:
osascript -e 'do shell script "bash -x $SOURCE_ROOT/MyAdminScript.sh 1>/tmp/build-log 2>/tmp/build-log.err" with administrator privileges'
This runs the script and logs it output to /tmp/build-log and /tmp/build-log.err
For useful variables in the script see https://help.apple.com/xcode/mac/8.0/#/itcaec37c2a6
You can also execute XCode giving it the project as parameter from the Terminal using sudo like this:
sudo /Developer/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/MacOS/Xcode /path/to/your/project.xcodeproj
This is the easiest solution I could think of, but there may be some drawbacks, since you would be executing XCode as root.
No need to write your sudo password anywhere. Just open a terminal window and type
$ sudo echo "hello"
Once you've typed your password, it will be good for a while - not sure how long - and the shell spawned by Xcode will inherit this permission.
If you get the "no tty present" message again later, just repeat the procedure

Capistrano :shell example

I'm currently using Capistrano to deploy my web application which works like a charm.
In my new project I must execute a command from sudo /bin/bash shell.
Is it possible for Capistrano to login to the machine as user X, run sudo /bin/bash,
enter the password and then execute a command in the sudo shell? If yes, could you
please provived me with an example.
With regards
jakob
Is there a specific reason you need to be in a root shell rather than executing the command with sudo? If executing a command with sudo, you can simply sudo 'command' instead of run 'command'.
I did a little experimentation to try to get a root shell with capistrano without logging into the server directly as root, and wasn't able to make much progress.
If running with sudo won't work, please update your question to let us know why and maybe we can help you find a workaround for it.
Update:
After playing around a little more, I found that you can execute an individual command (or string of commands) in a root shell by doing something like sudo '/bin/bash -c "whoami"'. It's getting an interactive root shell that's tricky.

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