Home/ Questions/Q 4028094
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-20T11:10:41+00:00

I need to execute a command which is needed to run as root. I

  • 0

I need to execute a command which is needed to run as root.

I read some post about using hard-coded passwords in scripts could be insecure, but actually I don’t care because I’m providing root password to users anyway. It’s an stripped system and there’s only 2 users: client and root, so avoid warning me about security issues, Go ahead and give a quick and dirty solution.

For this bash script I need to
get as superuser using su,
then “my command”,
and then logout.

I don’t want the terminal prompt to type the password myself, instead read the password that I’m providing somewhere in script and run the command. It’s a priority to not prompt any input by user.

Alternatively, maybe I could install sudo, but is there any chance to run a command without any prompt of password (editing sudoers or something)?
What about of using expect?

Update: I forgot to say that is also a portable SO, used for USB sticks (maybe later for CDLive too), as you know, in some distros of this kind is provided a root password if users needed. The command mentioned before is a package extensions for some application install, and only root have privilegies to execute such command (I have to say it’s not a apt-get install or rpm command, so don’t worry about this).

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    If you want a command to be runnable with no password, set that specific command as runnable with no password in your /etc/sudoers file (limiting the arguments to only the specific ones you wish to allow, if your use case allows that limitation).

    This is as simple as setting the NOPASSWD: flag for the relevant sudoers entry.

    If you really, really don’t care about security, it could be as simple as this:

    %admin ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

    (after putting sudo-capable users in the admin UNIX group)

    …or, if you did care, you could do something specific:

    someuser ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/local/sbin/my_admin_command

    Note that if these commands will be run with no user present, they also may not have a TTY assigned; in such a case, you must be sure that your sudoers file doesn’t contain the (oft-present-by-default) line:

    Defaults requiretty

    …or that the effect of this default is being specifically discarded by the line granting permissions.

    • 0