OpenWrt: Cannot install package sudo

Question

I have installed the latest OpenWrt Chaos Calmer r42871 on my TP-LINK WR-842ND router. And everything's good except the problem:

root@router:~# opkg install sudo

Unknown package 'sudo'.

Collected errors:

• opkg_install_cmd: Cannot install package sudo.

In the same time I can install another packages like: shadow-useradd, shadow-groupadd, etc.

The target idea is to disable the root user and to make a router more secure by using non-priv user by default (I suppose sudo would help with it at least).

It's really strange that Mr. Google doesn't know about this error yet. But I hope it will already. :)

Any advices needed!

Answer 1

sudo is not provided anymore by this distribution, and the sudo paragraph from this documentation seems outdated.

As you can see in this ps -w exctract from my router, almost all processes are running as root :

  (... kernel process edited out)
  832 root      8984 S    /sbin/ubusd
  833 root      2716 S    /sbin/askfirst /usr/libexec/login.sh
  834 root      2716 S    /sbin/askfirst /usr/libexec/login.sh
 1122 root      7040 S    /sbin/logd -S 64
 1123 root     11120 S    /sbin/logread -f -h router -r 10.13.9.40 514 -p /var/run/logread.2.pid
 1132 root     15296 S    /sbin/rpcd
 1167 root     15440 S    /sbin/netifd
 1307 root      2888 S    /usr/sbin/dropbear -F -P /var/run/dropbear.1.pid -p 10.13.9.1:22 -K 300
 1846 root     24228 S    /usr/sbin/uhttpd -f -h /www -r router -x /cgi-bin -u /ubus -t 60 -T 30 -k 20 -A 1 -n 3 -N 100 -R -p 0.0.0
 1859 zabbix    5420 S    /usr/sbin/zabbix_agentd -c /etc/zabbix_agentd.conf -f
 1866 zabbix    5420 S    /usr/sbin/zabbix_agentd: collector [idle 1 sec]
 1867 zabbix    5420 S    /usr/sbin/zabbix_agentd: listener #1 [waiting for connection]
 1868 zabbix    5428 S    /usr/sbin/zabbix_agentd: active checks #1 [idle 1 sec]
 1876 root     15036 R    /usr/sbin/openvpn --syslog openvpn(server) --status /var/run/openvpn.server.status --cd /var/etc --config
 1908 root      3060 S <  /usr/sbin/ntpd -n -N -l -S /usr/sbin/ntpd-hotplug -p ***EDITED_OUT***.org -p ***EDITED_OUT***.org -p ***EDITED_OUT***
 1960 dnsmasq   2968 S    /usr/sbin/dnsmasq -C /var/etc/dnsmasq.conf -k -x /var/run/dnsmasq/dnsmasq.pid
 2688 root      3336 S    {dynamic_dns_upd} /bin/sh /usr/lib/ddns/dynamic_dns_updater.sh -v 0 -S ***EDITED_OUT*** -- start
 2689 root      3336 S    {dynamic_dns_upd} /bin/sh /usr/lib/ddns/dynamic_dns_updater.sh -v 0 -S ***EDITED_OUT*** -- start
 2690 root      3340 S    {dynamic_dns_upd} /bin/sh /usr/lib/ddns/dynamic_dns_updater.sh -v 0 -S ***EDITED_OUT*** -- start
 8532 root      3000 R    /usr/sbin/dropbear -F -P /var/run/dropbear.1.pid -p 10.13.9.1:22 -K 300
 8533 root      3064 S    -ash
 8609 root      3056 S    sleep 600
 8616 root      3056 S    sleep 600
 8620 root         0 SW   [kworker/u8:1]
 8678 root      3056 S    sleep 600
 8691 root      3056 R    ps w

So by adding the sudo packages, adding a user, and after a lot of configuration, the only security you will gain is typing sudo before every command, or sudo -i after each login.

According to Raúl Salinas-Monteagudo's comment, this distribution is intended for router machines, only accessed by their administrators.

Answer 2

You need to update the list of packages:

opkg update

Then try to showing the info for the package you are interested in:

opkg info sudo

More information in the online documentation of the project.