SUDOERS_TIMESTAMP(5) | File Formats Manual | SUDOERS_TIMESTAMP(5) |
NAME
sudoers_timestamp
—
Sudoers Time Stamp Format
DESCRIPTION
The sudoers
plugin uses per-user-ID time
stamp files for credential caching. Once a user has been authenticated, they
may use sudo
without a password for a short period
of time (5
minutes unless overridden by the timestamp_timeout
option). By default, sudoers
uses a separate record
for each terminal, which means that a user's login sessions are
authenticated separately. The
timestamp_type
option can be used to select the type of time stamp record
sudoers
will use.
A multi-record time stamp file format was introduced in
sudo
1.8.10 that uses a single file per user.
Previously, a separate file was used for each user and terminal combination
unless tty-based time stamps were disabled. The new format is extensible and
records of multiple types and versions may coexist within the same file.
All records, regardless of type or version, begin with a 16-bit version number and a 16-bit record size.
Time stamp records have the following structure:
/* Time stamp entry types */ #define TS_GLOBAL 0x01U /* not restricted by tty or ppid */ #define TS_TTY 0x02U /* restricted by tty */ #define TS_PPID 0x03U /* restricted by ppid */ #define TS_LOCKEXCL 0x04U /* special lock record */ /* Time stamp flags */ #define TS_DISABLED 0x01U /* entry disabled */ #define TS_ANYUID 0x02U /* ignore uid, only valid in key */ struct timestamp_entry { unsigned short version; /* version number */ unsigned short size; /* entry size */ unsigned short type; /* TS_GLOBAL, TS_TTY, TS_PPID */ unsigned short flags; /* TS_DISABLED, TS_ANYUID */ uid_t auth_uid; /* uid to authenticate as */ pid_t sid; /* session ID associated with tty/ppid */ struct timespec start_time; /* session/ppid start time */ struct timespec ts; /* time stamp (CLOCK_MONOTONIC) */ union { dev_t ttydev; /* tty device number */ pid_t ppid; /* parent pid */ } u; };
The timestamp_entry struct fields are as follows:
- version
- The version number of the timestamp_entry struct. New entries are created with a version number of 2. Records with different version numbers may coexist in the same file but are not inter-operable.
- size
- The size of the record in bytes.
- type
- The record type, currently
TS_GLOBAL
,TS_TTY
, orTS_PPID
. - flags
- Zero or more record flags which can be bit-wise ORed together. Supported
flags are
TS_DISABLED
, for records disabled viasudo
-k
andTS_ANYUID
, which is used only when matching records. - auth_uid
- The user-ID that was used for authentication. Depending on the value of the rootpw, runaspw and targetpw options, the user-ID may be that of the invoking user, the root user, the default runas user or the target user.
- sid
- The ID of the user's terminal session, if present. The session ID is only
used when matching records of type
TS_TTY
. - start_time
- The start time of the session leader for records of type
TS_TTY
or of the parent process for records of typeTS_PPID
. The start_time is used to help prevent reuse of a time stamp record after a user has logged out. Not all systems support a method to easily retrieve a process's start time. The start_time field was added insudoers
version 1.8.22 for the second revision of the timestamp_entry struct. - ts
- The actual time stamp. A monotonic time source (which does not move
backward) is used if the system supports it. Where possible,
sudoers
uses a monotonic timer that increments even while the system is suspended. The value of ts is updated each time a command is run viasudo
. If the difference between ts and the current time is less than the value of the timestamp_timeout option, no password is required. - u.ttydev
- The device number of the terminal associated with the session for records
of type
TS_TTY
. - u.ppid
- The ID of the parent process for records of type
TS_PPID
.
The tsdump
utility, included
with the sudo source distribution, can be used to display the contents of a
sudoers time
stamp file.
LOCKING
In sudoers
versions 1.8.10 through 1.8.14,
the entire time stamp file was locked for exclusive access when reading or
writing to the file. Starting in sudoers
1.8.15,
individual records are locked in the time stamp file instead of the entire
file and the lock is held for a longer period of time. This scheme is
described below.
The first record in the time stamp file is of type
TS_LOCKEXCL
and is used as a
lock record to
prevent more than one sudo
process from adding a new
record at the same time. Once the desired time stamp record has been located
or created (and locked), the TS_LOCKEXCL
record is
unlocked. The lock on the individual time stamp record, however, is held
until authentication is complete. This allows
sudoers
to avoid prompting for a password multiple
times when it is used more than once in a pipeline.
Records of type TS_GLOBAL
cannot be locked
for a long period of time since doing so would interfere with other
sudo
processes. Instead, a separate lock record is
used to prevent multiple sudo
processes using the
same terminal (or parent process ID) from prompting for a password as the
same time.
SEE ALSO
HISTORY
Originally, sudo
used a single zero-length
file per user and the file's modification time was used as the time stamp.
Later versions of sudo
added restrictions on the
ownership of the time stamp files and directory as well as checks on the
validity of the time stamp itself. Notable changes were introduced in the
following sudo
versions:
- 1.4.0
- Support for tty-based time stamp file was added by appending the terminal name to the time stamp file name.
- 1.6.2
- The time stamp file was replaced by a per-user directory which contained any tty-based time stamp files.
- 1.6.3p2
- The target user name was added to the time stamp file name when the targetpw option was set.
- 1.7.3
- Information about the terminal device was stored in tty-based time stamp files for validity checks. This included the terminal device numbers, inode number and, on systems where it was not updated when the device was written to, the inode change time. This helped prevent reuse of the time stamp file after logout.
- 1.8.6p7
- The terminal session ID was added to tty-based time stamp files to prevent reuse of the time stamp by the same user in a different terminal session. It also helped prevent reuse of the time stamp file on systems where the terminal device's inode change time was updated by writing.
- 1.8.10
- A new, multi-record time stamp file format was introduced that uses a single file per user. The terminal device's change time was not included since most systems now update the change time after a write is performed as required by POSIX.
- 1.8.15
- Individual records are locked in the time stamp file instead of the entire file and the lock is held until authentication is complete.
- 1.8.22
- The start time of the terminal session leader or parent process is now
stored in non-global time stamp records. This prevents reuse of the time
stamp file after logout in most cases.
Support was added for the kernel-based tty time stamps available in OpenBSD which do not use an on-disk time stamp file.
- 1.9.15
- Time stamp file path names are now based on the invoking user-ID instead of the user name. This avoids problems with user names that include a path separator character.
AUTHORS
Many people have worked on sudo
over the
years; this version consists of code written primarily by:
See the CONTRIBUTORS.md file in the sudo
distribution (https://www.sudo.ws/about/contributors/) for an exhaustive
list of people who have contributed to sudo
.
BUGS
If you believe you have found a bug in
sudoers_timestamp
, you can either file a bug report
in the sudo bug database, https://bugzilla.sudo.ws/, or open an issue at
https://github.com/sudo-project/sudo/issues. If you would prefer to use
email, messages may be sent to the sudo-workers mailing list,
https://www.sudo.ws/mailman/listinfo/sudo-workers (public) or
<sudo@sudo.ws> (private).
Please not report security vulnerabilities through public GitHub issues, Bugzilla or mailing lists. Instead, report them via email to <Todd.Miller@sudo.ws>. You may encrypt your message with PGP if you would like, using the key found at https://www.sudo.ws/dist/PGPKEYS.
SUPPORT
Limited free support is available via the sudo-users mailing list, see https://www.sudo.ws/mailman/listinfo/sudo-users to subscribe or search the archives.
DISCLAIMER
sudo
is provided “AS IS” and
any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited to, the
implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose
are disclaimed. See the LICENSE.md file distributed with
sudo
or https://www.sudo.ws/about/license/ for
complete details.
November 26, 2023 | Sudo 1.9.16 |