Doas authenticates as a simpler version of Sudo
Add an Alias
The options described thus far are sufficient for the needs of most desktop users. The problem of muscle memory causing you to automatically type sudo instead of doas is countered with an alias in the .bashrc file; just add the line alias sudo="doas" to point your Sudo commands towards Doas.
Man pages exist for both the doas command and the doas.conf file. The man page for doas.conf contains examples of advanced configurations. The developer has written on advanced concepts in his blog [8].
Conclusions
Doas is virtually unknown in Linux, but this lean Sudo alternative is worthy of attention. Doas is much simpler than the overly complex Sudo, and the plain-language configuration is unlikely to pose a problem even for newcomers. Only the absence of Bash completion in the default configuration and the need to re-enter the password for each command taint the otherwise good impression. However, both these problems have easy workarounds.
I have used Doas for about a year, and I have no cause for complaint. I especially like the simple configuration and the ability to work without a password on standalone systems.
Infos
- Role-based access control: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role-based_access_control
- Mandatory access control: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandatory_Access_Control
- "10-year-old Sudo security bug lets Linux users gain root-level access" by Catalin Cimpanu, ZDNet: https://www.zdnet.com/article/10-years-old-sudo-bug-lets-linux-users-gain-root-level-access/
- OpenDoas versions: https://repology.org/project/opendoas/versions
- Doas: https://github.com/slicer69/doas
- OpenDoas at Github: https://github.com/Duncaen/OpenDoas
- PAM: https://tldp.org/HOWTO/User-Authentication-HOWTO/x115.html
- Doas Mastery: https://flak.tedunangst.com/post/doas-mastery
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