How to add local user to admin access via /etc/sudoers with sudo su – root / Create a sudo admin group to enable users belonging to group become superuser

Friday, 15th January 2021

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Did you had to have a local users on a server and you needed to be able to add Admins group for all system administrators, so any local user on the system that belongs to the group to be able to become root with command lets say sudo su – root / su -l root / su – root?
If so below is an example /etc/sudoers file that will allow your users belonging to a group local group sysadmins with some assigned group number

Here is how to create the sysadmins group as a starter

linux:~# groupadd -g 800 sysadmins

Lets create a new local user georgi and append the user to be a member of sysadmins group which will be our local system Administrator (superuser) access user group.

To create a user with a specific desired userid lets check in /etc/passwd and create it:

linux:~# grep :811: /etc/passwd || useradd -u 811 -g 800 -c 'Georgi hip0' -d /home/georgi -m georgi

Next lets create /etc/sudoers (if you need to copy paste content of file check here)and paste below configuration:

linux:~# mcedit /etc/sudoers

## Updating the locate database
# Cmnd_Alias LOCATE = /usr/bin/updatedb

 

## Storage
# Cmnd_Alias STORAGE = /sbin/fdisk, /sbin/sfdisk, /sbin/parted, /sbin/partprobe, /bin/mount, /bin/umount

## Delegating permissions
# Cmnd_Alias DELEGATING = /usr/sbin/visudo, /bin/chown, /bin/chmod, /bin/chgrp

## Processes
# Cmnd_Alias PROCESSES = /bin/nice, /bin/kill, /usr/bin/kill, /usr/bin/killall

## Drivers
# Cmnd_Alias DRIVERS = /sbin/modprobe

Cmnd_Alias PASSWD = /usr/bin/passwd [a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9_-]*, \
!/usr/bin/passwd root

Cmnd_Alias SU_ROOT = /bin/su root, \
                     /bin/su – root, \
                     /bin/su -l root, \
                     /bin/su -p root


# Defaults specification

#
# Refuse to run if unable to disable echo on the tty.
#
Defaults   !visiblepw

#
# Preserving HOME has security implications since many programs
# use it when searching for configuration files. Note that HOME
# is already set when the the env_reset option is enabled, so
# this option is only effective for configurations where either
# env_reset is disabled or HOME is present in the env_keep list.
#
Defaults    always_set_home
Defaults    match_group_by_gid

Defaults    env_reset
Defaults    env_keep =  "COLORS DISPLAY HOSTNAME HISTSIZE KDEDIR LS_COLORS"
Defaults    env_keep += "MAIL PS1 PS2 QTDIR USERNAME LANG LC_ADDRESS LC_CTYPE"
Defaults    env_keep += "LC_COLLATE LC_IDENTIFICATION LC_MEASUREMENT LC_MESSAGES"
Defaults    env_keep += "LC_MONETARY LC_NAME LC_NUMERIC LC_PAPER LC_TELEPHONE"
Defaults    env_keep += "LC_TIME LC_ALL LANGUAGE LINGUAS _XKB_CHARSET XAUTHORITY"

#
# Adding HOME to env_keep may enable a user to run unrestricted
# commands via sudo.
#
# Defaults   env_keep += "HOME"
Defaults    secure_path = /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

## Next comes the main part: which users can run what software on
## which machines (the sudoers file can be shared between multiple
## systems).
## Syntax:
##
##      user    MACHINE=COMMANDS
##
## The COMMANDS section may have other options added to it.
##
## Allow root to run any commands anywhere
root    ALL=(ALL)       ALL

## Allows members of the 'sys' group to run networking, software,
## service management apps and more.
# %sys ALL = NETWORKING, SOFTWARE, SERVICES, STORAGE, DELEGATING, PROCESSES, LOCATE, DRIVERS

## Allows people in group wheel to run all commands
%wheel  ALL=(ALL)       ALL

## Same thing without a password
# %wheel        ALL=(ALL)       NOPASSWD: ALL

## Allows members of the users group to mount and unmount the
## cdrom as root
# %users  ALL=/sbin/mount /mnt/cdrom, /sbin/umount /mnt/cdrom
## Allows members of the users group to shutdown this system
# %users  localhost=/sbin/shutdown -h now

%sysadmins            ALL            = SU_ROOT, \
                                   NOPASSWD: PASSWD

## Read drop-in files from /etc/sudoers.d (the # here does not mean a comment)
#includedir /etc/sudoers.d

zabbix  ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:/usr/bin/grep


Save the config and give it a try now to become root with sudo su – root command

linux:~$ id
uid=811(georgi) gid=800(sysadmins) groups=800(sysadmins)
linux:~$ sudo su – root
linux~#

w00t Voila your user is with super rights ! Enjoy 🙂

 

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