Doing sudo nano will not load your user configuration, sudoedit will. I had plenty of problems with this, but I assume you don’t have any custom configuration.
One reason why sometime I don’t do sudoedit is that I make a lot of changes to the config/restart service/see it works/edit etc… sudoedit only write to the file when exiting, so that flow won’t work…
for example when having adding a new host on nginx and some configuration and see if everything work (sudo vim/systemc nginx restart/curl https:// domain loop)
but yeah in general i’ll just use sudoedit (which alias to se for me) for my root editing
No offense, but that sounds like more OCD behavior. 😅 I don’t need or want protection against myself, and I even loath the whole “that’s not how you’re supposed to do it”-mentality of linux (where when commands know very well what you want, instead of doing it, just tell you you forgot something). 😅
I appreciate all the answers on what started out to mostly be a joke (the first comment, I’m not saying the rest was, I actually do mean my follow-up discussions and am enjoying them more than I should). 😅
Anyway, first I must disagree with sudo being useless in a single-user environment since some services have non-user (nologin) accounts as which you still need to run things sometimes, so sudo is commonly useful in single-user environments (though you could technically go set bash for those, I suppose.)
But yeah, I’m already used to “bad practices” as I have been using linux for 24 years now (when it still was it’s predecessor ‘pico’ 😅) (I said over ‘10’ years in an earlier comment, but I just realized I’m 40 and still calculated from 30. 😂 Wishful thinking. 😅) in what is assumed a bad practice, not only without any problems, but even because it never gave me problems.
Might be an age thing too, but I hold on to ease of use over best-practice, especially if it hasn’t failed me in two decades and a half.
I think it would take an actual attack on me abusing this behavior for me to stop doing it by now… And even then, I installed linux so many times in my life, even that seems more musclememory and not such a hassle anymore… 😅 At least I could make use of my backup system for once then… 😅
Sure, but sudo is specifically designed with security in mind as a security program, whereas text editors are not (although I am more likely to trust vim than vscode). Running a malicious program as the user and not as root can help mitigate the impact it could do, even though it will still be able to do a lot as a user.
What do you mean get root itself with a modified su? A program that has been run as a user cannot just get root permissions, that’s called a privilege escalation attack and is a serious vulnerability in the kernel which gets fixed quickly when found.
Again, like I replied to the other comment, most of the programs you need root for are designed with security in mind and are inherently more secure and have less vulnerabilities than a non security focused program (that is not to say that it is impossible for a security program to have vulnerabilities -it certainly occurred before and keeps occurring- they just have a lot fewer). But even if you need root permissions for a non security focused program, you still shouldn’t let any program have it, the whole point is to minimize the surface of attack.
Alternatively you could use my favorite approach, Visual Studio Code. Just open the file with it, edit it and upon saving you will be promoted if the file needs admin rights to save.
Yes, but if you want to argue along those lines, you could also have an infected version of vim on your system just waiting to do malicious stuff until you give it sudo access.
You shouldn’t really use editor with sudo, but instead use sudoedit to edit files restricted to root user
SUDO_EDITOR=nano sudoedit /etc/fstabThis accomplishes the same function while running the text editor as unprivileged user
Why?
Files from user: nano
Files from root: sudo nano
Files from another user: sudo nano (and if new sudo chown after)… 😂
Never had any problems with this in over 10 years… 😅😂
Doing
sudo nanowill not load your user configuration,sudoeditwill. I had plenty of problems with this, but I assume you don’t have any custom configuration.One reason why sometime I don’t do sudoedit is that I make a lot of changes to the config/restart service/see it works/edit etc… sudoedit only write to the file when exiting, so that flow won’t work…
for example when having adding a new host on nginx and some configuration and see if everything work (sudo vim/systemc nginx restart/curl https:// domain loop)
but yeah in general i’ll just use sudoedit (which alias to se for me) for my root editing
I just have a root custom config too. 🤷♂️ This even allows me to easily use different configs for root than for the user.
Made with ‘sudo nano’, fyi. 😂
As mentioned, to prevent running your text editor with root permissions. It’s just security optimization
Let me rephrase my question:
Why would I not want to open nano as root?
No offense, but that sounds like more OCD behavior. 😅 I don’t need or want protection against myself, and I even loath the whole “that’s not how you’re supposed to do it”-mentality of linux (where when commands know very well what you want, instead of doing it, just tell you you forgot something). 😅
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But, in that example:
If I’m the admin it doesn’t matter I use it.
If I’m not it’s not my problem that I could get more privileges than allowed. I’d probably even use the possibility then. 😅
So it poses a risk if you allow none-admin users to do that on your system, but I still don’t see why I must choose to not use nano as root myself. 😅
Anyway, good practice to me is ease-of-use instead of with 7 protections against things that rarely happen.
Like, I’m pretty sure you are better protected from burglars if you also lock all doors inside your house, but I’m definitely not doing that either. 😅
Edit: Also, if you have users on your system, just chroot/vroot/lxc them, so they be free to ‘sudo nano’ too… 😅
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I appreciate all the answers on what started out to mostly be a joke (the first comment, I’m not saying the rest was, I actually do mean my follow-up discussions and am enjoying them more than I should). 😅
Anyway, first I must disagree with sudo being useless in a single-user environment since some services have non-user (nologin) accounts as which you still need to run things sometimes, so sudo is commonly useful in single-user environments (though you could technically go set bash for those, I suppose.)
But yeah, I’m already used to “bad practices” as I have been using linux for 24 years now (when it still was it’s predecessor ‘pico’ 😅) (I said over ‘10’ years in an earlier comment, but I just realized I’m 40 and still calculated from 30. 😂 Wishful thinking. 😅) in what is assumed a bad practice, not only without any problems, but even because it never gave me problems.
Might be an age thing too, but I hold on to ease of use over best-practice, especially if it hasn’t failed me in two decades and a half. I think it would take an actual attack on me abusing this behavior for me to stop doing it by now… And even then, I installed linux so many times in my life, even that seems more musclememory and not such a hassle anymore… 😅 At least I could make use of my backup system for once then… 😅
It’s probably to protect against any potential security vulnerabilities in the text editor program itself, not to protect you from yourself.
Wouldn’t that logic count for anything, including sudo itself?
Sure, but sudo is specifically designed with security in mind as a security program, whereas text editors are not (although I am more likely to trust vim than vscode). Running a malicious program as the user and not as root can help mitigate the impact it could do, even though it will still be able to do a lot as a user.
You assume this malicious code is lame enough not to gain root itself with a modified su.
What do you mean get root itself with a modified su? A program that has been run as a user cannot just get root permissions, that’s called a privilege escalation attack and is a serious vulnerability in the kernel which gets fixed quickly when found.
You can say that just about anything.
sudo grub sudo boot sudo root=/dev/disk/linux sudo kernel-6.1.image sudo init sudo elogind sudo xterm sudo bash sudo nano
Again, like I replied to the other comment, most of the programs you need root for are designed with security in mind and are inherently more secure and have less vulnerabilities than a non security focused program (that is not to say that it is impossible for a security program to have vulnerabilities -it certainly occurred before and keeps occurring- they just have a lot fewer). But even if you need root permissions for a non security focused program, you still shouldn’t let any program have it, the whole point is to minimize the surface of attack.
Alternatively you could use my favorite approach, Visual Studio Code. Just open the file with it, edit it and upon saving you will be promoted if the file needs admin rights to save.
Okay but how can I show how good I am with shortcuts to edit legacy software ?
Vscode does have a lot of shortcuts, so you could always study them in detail and impress others that way. 😅
Yup, s/vsc/kwrite/ personally, it’s lighter, but why shouldn’t I have a pretty for my config editing needs…
I love vsc but it’s not always available.
So for any supposedly malicious activity (infected) it wants to do, it just has to hold until you save and give admin access? 😅
Yes, but if you want to argue along those lines, you could also have an infected version of vim on your system just waiting to do malicious stuff until you give it sudo access.
Indeed… Hence why I use ‘sudo nano’. 😜