You're viewing a single thread.
sudo nano
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). 😅
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.
It's not any OCD behavior, but simply the best practices. You've probably at least minimally familiar with the principal of least privilege? The idea is to minimize scope of a potential problem , was it malicious attack or user error, by restricting access to minimum required to perform a task. It may feel like fighting pedantically (and I've been fighting this more than I'd care to) but it will save your ass one day.
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'. 😜