The default recipe configures the /etc/sudoers file. The cookbook also includes a sudo resource to adding and removing individual sudo entries.

• AIX
• Debian/Ubuntu
• RHEL/CentOS/Scientific/Amazon/Oracle
• Amazon Linux
• FreeBSD
• macOS
• openSUSE / SUSE Enterprise

• Chef 12.21.3+

• None

Use the sudo resource to add or remove individual sudo entries using sudoers.d files.

Note Sudo version 1.7.2 or newer is required to use the sudo resource as it relies on the "#includedir" directive introduced in version 1.7.2. The resource does not enforce installing the version. Supported releases of Ubuntu, Debian and RHEL (6+) all support this feature.

• :create - Create a sudoers config
• :delete - Delete a sudoers config

If you use the template property, all other properties will be ignored except for the variables property.

sudo 'bob' do
  user 'bob'
end

sudo "sysadmin" do
  group "sysadmin"
  nopasswd true
end

sudo "sysadmin" do
  group ['sysadmin', 'superadmin']
  user "bob"
  nopasswd true
end

The resource provides two methods for templating the sudoers config files:

1. Using the built-in template
2. Using a custom, cookbook-level template

Both methods will create the /etc/sudoers.d/#{resourcename} files with the correct permissions.

The resource also performs fragment validation. If a sudoer-fragment is not valid, the Chef run will throw an exception and fail. This ensures that your sudoers file is always valid and cannot become corrupt (from this cookbook).

sudo 'tomcat' do
  user      '%tomcat'    # or a username
  runas     'app_user'   # or 'app_user:tomcat'
  commands  ['/etc/init.d/tomcat restart']
end

sudo 'tomcat' do
  template    'my_tomcat.erb' # local cookbook template
  variables   cmds: ['/etc/init.d/tomcat restart']
end

In either case, the following file would be generated in /etc/sudoers.d/tomcat

# This file is managed by Chef for node.example.com
# Do NOT modify this file directly.

%tomcat ALL=(app_user) /etc/init.d/tomcat restart

We highly recommend using the sudo resource to define individual sudo entries, but this cookbook also ships with a recipe that can be included on a run_list and controlled using attributes.

• node['authorization']['sudo']['groups'] - groups to enable sudo access (default: [])
• node['authorization']['sudo']['users'] - users to enable sudo access (default: [])
• node['authorization']['sudo']['passwordless'] - use passwordless sudo (default: false)
• node['authorization']['sudo']['include_sudoers_d'] - include and manage /etc/sudoers.d (default: true on Linux systems. Note: older / EOL distros do not support this feature)
• node['authorization']['sudo']['agent_forwarding'] - preserve SSH_AUTH_SOCK when sudoing (default: false)
• node['authorization']['sudo']['sudoers_defaults'] - Array of Defaults entries to configure in /etc/sudoers
• node['authorization']['sudo']['setenv'] - Whether to permit preserving of environment with sudo -E (default: false)

To use attributes for defining sudoers, set the attributes above on the node (or role) itself:

{
  "default_attributes": {
    "authorization": {
      "sudo": {
        "groups": ["admin", "wheel", "sysadmin"],
        "users": ["jerry", "greg"],
        "passwordless": "true"
      }
    }
  }
}

{
  "default_attributes": {
    "authorization": {
      "sudo": {
        "command_aliases": [{
          "name": "TEST",
          "command_list": [
            "/usr/bin/ls",
            "/usr/bin/cat"
          ]
        }],
        "custom_commands": {
          "users": [
            {
              "user": "test_user",
              "passwordless": true,
              "command_list": [
                "TEST"
              ]
            }
          ],
          "groups": [
            {
              "group": "test_group",
              "passwordless": false,
              "command_list": [
                "TEST"
              ]
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

# roles/example.rb
default_attributes(
  "authorization" => {
    "sudo" => {
      "groups" => ["admin", "wheel", "sysadmin"],
      "users" => ["jerry", "greg"],
      "passwordless" => true
    }
  }
)

Note that the template for the sudoers file has the group "sysadmin" with ALL:ALL permission, though the group by default does not exist.

Configure a node attribute, node['authorization']['sudo']['sudoers_defaults'] as an array of Defaults entries to configure in /etc/sudoers. A list of examples for common platforms is listed below:

Debian

node.default['authorization']['sudo']['sudoers_defaults'] = ['env_reset']

Ubuntu

node.default['authorization']['sudo']['sudoers_defaults'] = [
  'env_reset',
  'secure_path="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin"'
]

FreeBSD

node.default['authorization']['sudo']['sudoers_defaults'] = [
  'env_reset',
  'secure_path="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin"'
]

RHEL family 6.x

node.default['authorization']['sudo']['sudoers_defaults'] = [
  '!visiblepw',
  'env_reset',
  'env_keep =  "COLORS DISPLAY HOSTNAME HISTSIZE INPUTRC KDEDIR LS_COLORS"',
  'env_keep += "MAIL PS1 PS2 QTDIR USERNAME LANG LC_ADDRESS LC_CTYPE"',
  'env_keep += "LC_COLLATE LC_IDENTIFICATION LC_MEASUREMENT LC_MESSAGES"',
  'env_keep += "LC_MONETARY LC_NAME LC_NUMERIC LC_PAPER LC_TELEPHONE"',
  'env_keep += "LC_TIME LC_ALL LANGUAGE LINGUAS _XKB_CHARSET XAUTHORITY"',
  'env_keep += "HOME"',
  'always_set_home',
  'secure_path = /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin'
]

Mac OS X

node.default['authorization']['sudo']['sudoers_defaults'] = [
  'env_reset',
  'env_keep += "BLOCKSIZE"',
  'env_keep += "COLORFGBG COLORTERM"',
  'env_keep += "__CF_USER_TEXT_ENCODING"',
  'env_keep += "CHARSET LANG LANGUAGE LC_ALL LC_COLLATE LC_CTYPE"',
  'env_keep += "LC_MESSAGES LC_MONETARY LC_NUMERIC LC_TIME"',
  'env_keep += "LINES COLUMNS"',
  'env_keep += "LSCOLORS"',
  'env_keep += "TZ"',
  'env_keep += "DISPLAY XAUTHORIZATION XAUTHORITY"',
  'env_keep += "EDITOR VISUAL"',
  'env_keep += "HOME MAIL"'
]

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