Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 66043
sudo removes environment variables
Last modified: 2007-10-01 15:20:02 EDT
Description of Problem: sudo removes certain environment variables from a process. The following little scripts exemplifies exactly what is happening: see attached `x' and `y'. Run `x' and you see: ~> ./x Password: X = x Y = y Z = z LOCAL is undefined TMP is undefined RE is undefined TM is undefined ~> Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): sudo-1.6.5p2-2 How Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. run `./x' on command line 2. 3. Actual Results: Expected Results: Additional Information:
Created attachment 59705 [details] Script file for `x'
Created attachment 59706 [details] Script file for `y'
This is intentional. Current versions of sudo clear the environment except for a couple of known safe variables to prevent security leaks (e.g. buffer overruns by passing invalid arguments to an application or stuff like export LD_PRELOAD=givemearootshell.so; sudo something_you_may_do).
Please add this behavior to the sudo man page, and provide a mechanism for passing specific environment variables to the process.
Disregard the second part of that request; I found it in the sudoers file. Just please document what you did in the man page.