Enable Passwordless Sudo with Arguments

Question

I am trying to enable passwordless sudo for updating yum on a RHEL box. I have the following line in sudo visudo.

myuser ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/yum update

After doing this under myuser I am still unable to update yum without giving my sudo password.

/usr/bin/env sudo yum -y update
sudo yum -y update

The reason why I need this done is because in Capistrano 3 it says this is the best way. It does not seem to allow a prompt of sudo anymore.

possible duplicate of [How to setup passwordless \`sudo\` on Linux?](http://serverfault.com/questions/160581/how-to-setup-passwordless-sudo-on-linux) — Dennis Nolte, Aug 06 '14 at 07:25
It's not a duplicate as it's a different problem. The problem there does not reference the need to have the extra parameter in the sudoers file. I thought it would automatically pick that up and know about it. — wallerjake, Aug 06 '14 at 15:24
@wallerjake, I've changed the **redhat** tag with **rhel6**, as [**redhat**](http://serverfault.com/questions/tagged/redhat) is way too generic. If you're using a different version, please update the tags accordingly. — Cristian Ciupitu, Aug 06 '14 at 22:45

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 06 '14 at 22:47

Actually, the command string listed in the sudoers is requiring to be the exact match.

In your example, you put the command string /usr/bin/yum update in the sudoers configuration line, but the command you finally executes is yum -y update. (the difference is the extra parameter -y).

Then, the mismatch in command string caused the sudoers failed to hit the designed definition.

So, the following ways are my suggestion to rectify the problem:

use the command string /usr/bin/yum -y update when you setting the sudoer configuration, or
use the command string /usr/bin/yum (no parameter in there).

This was a great answer. The part I was missing was having the -y in the sudoers file. — wallerjake, Aug 06 '14 at 15:23

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 05 '14 at 22:38

1

Try:

Cmnd_Alias YUM = /usr/bin/yum

user ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: YUM

answered Aug 05 '14 at 22:38

dmourati

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You might also have to comment out the requiretty setting: "Defaults requiretty" if you are using SSH. – dmourati Aug 05 '14 at 22:41

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 05 '14 at 23:08

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Check if you have the following in your sudoers file :

%sudo   ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

If yes, try to comment it :

#%sudo   ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

answered Aug 05 '14 at 23:08

krisFR

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Enable Passwordless Sudo with Arguments

3 Answers3