Escalating privileges on linux programmatically

Question

I am creating a graphical installer that should run on Linux. Installing should consist of copying files to some places in /usr. Currently the installer is written in Python.

How can I escalate the privileges of my installer when I need to copy files? I looked at PolicyKit but

• a) there doesn't seem to be a generic "install files" action-id for PolicyKit
• b) of the action ids I can use, I don't think they are standard across distros

I also looked at PAM and I have code that uses libpam but I can't seem to do anything with it. After authenticating my user (by providing username and password) I don't have write access to /usr. I tried changing my user with os.setuid(0) after authentication but I get an error from the OS.

Also, strangely, it doesn't seem to matter what service I provide to pam_start. As long as the username and password are correct I can pass anything I want. I see I have /etc/pam.d/sudo. The below code is simplified, the password is correctly stored in a pam_conversation object and I do pass a handle object.

pam_start("my_user", "my_pass", "sudo_garbage_12345");

works just as well as

pam_start("my_user", "my_pass", "sudo");

That is, they both succeed.

As a last resort I can probably execute gksudo or kdesudo but I don't want to be tied to those programs. Requiring users to invoke my installer with sudo is a (very) last resort.

Answer 1

You might be better off wrapping RPM with a front end that takes the user options and invokes RPM to do the hard work. This also gives you infrastructure for managing dependencies and plays nicely with the existing package management system. If you need to run on a .deb based system (Debian or Ubuntu) you may also need to consturct a .deb and put some mechanism in the front end that works out which package management system is active.

Granting random users access to root privilege is generally viewed as bad form on Linux or Unix systems (or any multi-user system for that matter) as it is a significant security risk. However you do have the option of letting the user install it under their home directory (~/bin) if they don't have root access or sudo permissions that allow them to write to system areas. In this case you can require them to install it as root if they want to install in /usr/bin but permit them to install it under their home directory for their own use if they don't have root privileges.

Answer 2

The best way in this case is to use su within your program. Redirect inputs/outputs and you're good to go!

Answer 3

For a graphical installer, stick with a graphical environment. Use gksudo or kdesudo if they are available, otherwise fail with an error dialog saying they need root. People (newbies in particular) will download your installer and double-click to launch it from their desktop, and you need a graphical way to ask them for their password. You don't want to pop open a terminal on them.

Given that, don't do sudo for them even if they are running from the terminal. Just output an error saying you need root and exit. If the user is already at the command prompt (like I most likely would be), I already know how to sudo or su myself into root if I want to do so. I promise you you will most likely ruffle some feathers if you attempt to make an experienced user root when they can do it themselves.

If you INSIST on doing a sudo yourself from within your installer, for God's sake please force a 'sudo -K' before you do to remove the previous timestamp. If you don't do this, and I have sudo'd recently, you will run your installer with me as root without my knowledge (since I don't expect that to happen). A 'sudo -K' will force a prompt that I can then decide whether I want to proceed as root or not.