How a Non-Root User Can sudo to Another Non-Root User Without Password

linuxrhelsudousers

As root, created a new non-root user on RHEL 7.5

appuser:x:1903:1903:appuser:/home/appuser:/bin/bash

A non-root user to be able to sudo to appuser,

sudo -u appuser

without a password,

What are the changes required on RHEL 7.5?

Best Answer

You can edit the "User privilege specification" section of /etc/sudoers, adding:

non-root-user ALL = (appuser) NOPASSWD: ALL

This will allow non-root-user to run all commands as appuser. non-root-user will not be allowed to run commands as root.

Note that errors in /etc/sudoers can make a system unusable. The file should only be edited with:

$ sudo visudo

This special editor checks the sudoers file for errors before saving and refuses to save it if errors are found.

Related Solutions

How to Run a Program as Root Without a Password Prompt

You have another entry in the sudoers file, typically located at /etc/sudoers, which also matches your user. The NOPASSWD rule needs to be after that one in order for it to take precedence.

Having done that, sudo will prompt for a password normally for all commands except /path/to/my/program, which it will always let you run without asking for your password.

User created without a password behaves as if he had one

A user is created by default as a locked account. The field that should contain the password hash in /etc/shadow will contain !!. When an account is locked, that account is available to root only (root can su but logins aren't allowed). If you 'unlock' the account which simply removes the !! you will be allowed to change the password.

[root@test ~]# su - test
[test@test ~]$ passwd
Changing password for user test.
Changing password for test.
(current) UNIX password:
[test@test ~]$ exit
logout
[root@test ~]# passwd -u test
Unlocking password for user test.
passwd: Warning: unlocked password would be empty.
passwd: Unsafe operation (use -f to force)
[root@test ~]# passwd -u test -f
Unlocking password for user test.
passwd: Success
[root@test ~]# su - test
[test@test ~]$ passwd
Changing password for user test.
New password:

Best Answer

Related Solutions

How to Run a Program as Root Without a Password Prompt

User created without a password behaves as if he had one

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