When was the famous "sudo warning" introduced? (2019)

Post by varenc » Mon, Dec 02, 2024, 6:49 AM UTC

quotemstr wrote: post #5

pram wrote: post #3

It’s a funny artifact because most people today use, and have only used Linux in a “single user” context. The “local system administrator” is me!

And that's why we should 1) switch from using "sudo some-command --some-argument" to "some-command --some-argument" in which some-command authenticates and elevates via polkit, and 2) configure polkit to allow the initial human user of the machine to elevate without typing a password. #2 is just a default, and special configurations can of course override it and return a configuration much like what we have today. Bu…

Post by b112 » Mon, Dec 02, 2024, 7:11 AM UTC

alwayslikethis wrote: post #9

I thought this is about the other warning, which has since been removed: https://github.com/sudo-project/sudo/commit/6aa320c96a376136...

Post by Propelloni » Mon, Dec 02, 2024, 7:30 AM UTC

3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #30

weitendorf wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is underrated as a design flaw for how Linux tends to be used in 2024. At its most benign it's an anachronism and potential source of complexity, as its worst it's a major source of security vulnerabilities and unintended behavior (eg linux multitenancy was designed for two people in the same lab sharing a server, not for running completely untrusted workloads at huge scale, so it doesn't really implemen…

Actually, I have been wondering if using a Linux system as multi-user could be a boon in security. As single user, each and every process has full and complete control of $HOME. Instead, I would prefer all applications were sandboxed to their own little respective areas with minimal access to data unless explicitly authorized. Without going full QubeOS, get some amount of application separation so my photo utility do…

Post by plank » Mon, Dec 02, 2024, 7:46 AM UTC

Daneel_ wrote: post #27

thousand_nights wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Except if you're on a team of sysadmins running a fleet of systems not trying to be rude but this doesn't sound like "most people"

Interesting comment actually. I would have assumed that the vast majority of people using Linux are still sysadmins in small and large companies - this is certainly my personal experience. I wonder how many home users there are versus systems managed by sysadmins. I would still think there’s more in the corporate world, while I would think the opposite for Windows.

Post by alt187 » Mon, Dec 02, 2024, 8:08 AM UTC

rendaw wrote: post #45

bombcar wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Qubes takes that to an extreme: https://www.qubes-os.org/intro/ and runs every application in a virtual machine.

I was experimenting with taking that to a median using containers in nixos. IMO the distinguishing feature of qubes is the fact that there's chrome indicating the security level of a window based on its vm - I put together https://github.com/andrewbaxter/filterway to use with window manager rules to hopefully get the same result.