pkexec(1)


NAME

   pkexec - Execute a command as another user

SYNOPSIS

   pkexec [--version] [--disable-internal-agent] [--help]

   pkexec [--user username] PROGRAM [ARGUMENTS...]

DESCRIPTION

   pkexec allows an authorized user to execute PROGRAM as another user. If
   username is not specified, then the program will be executed as the
   administrative super user, root.

RETURN VALUE

   Upon successful completion, the return value is the return value of
   PROGRAM. If the calling process is not authorized or an authorization
   could not be obtained through authentication or an error occured,
   pkexec exits with a return value of 127. If the authorization could not
   be obtained because the user dismissed the authentication dialog,
   pkexec exits with a return value of 126.

AUTHENTICATION AGENT

   pkexec, like any other PolicyKit application, will use the
   authentication agent registered for the calling process. However, if no
   authentication agent is available, then pkexec will register its own
   textual authentication agent. This behavior can be turned off by
   passing the --disable-internal-agent option.

SECURITY NOTES

   Executing a program as another user is a privileged operation. By
   default the required authorization (See the section called "REQUIRED
   AUTHORIZATIONS") requires administrator authentication. In addition,
   the authentication dialog presented to the user will display the full
   path to the program to be executed so the user is aware of what will
   happen:

       [IMAGE][1]

           +----------------------------------------------------------+
           |                     Authenticate                     [X] |
           +----------------------------------------------------------+
           |                                                          |
           |  [Icon]  Authentication is needed to run `/bin/bash'     |
           |          as the super user                               |
           |                                                          |
           |          An application is attempting to perform an      |
           |          action that requires privileges. Authentication |
           |          as the super user is required to perform this   |
           |          action.                                         |
           |                                                          |
           |          Password for root: [_________________________]  |
           |                                                          |
           | [V] Details:                                             |
           |  Command: /bin/bash                                      |
           |  Run As:  Super User (root)                              |
           |  Action:  org.freedesktop.policykit.exec                 |
           |  Vendor:  The PolicyKit Project                          |
           |                                                          |
           |                                  [Cancel] [Authenticate] |
           +----------------------------------------------------------+

   The environment that PROGRAM will run it, will be set to a minimal
   known and safe environment in order to avoid injecting code through
   LD_LIBRARY_PATH or similar mechanisms. In addition the PKEXEC_UID
   environment variable is set to the user id of the process invoking
   pkexec. As a result, pkexec will not allow you to run X11 applications
   as another user since the $DISPLAY and $XAUTHORITY environment
   variables are not set. These two variables will be retained if the
   org.freedesktop.policykit.exec.allow_gui annotation on an action is set
   to a nonempty value; this is discouraged, though, and should only be
   used for legacy programs.

REQUIRED AUTHORIZATIONS

   By default, the org.freedesktop.policykit.exec authorization is
   required unless an action definition file is present for the program in
   question. To require another authorization, it can be specified using
   the org.freedesktop.policykit.exec.path annotation on an action (See
   the section called "EXAMPLE" for details).

EXAMPLE

   To specify what kind of authorization is needed to execute the program
   /usr/bin/pk-example-frobnicate as another user, simply write an action
   definition file like this

       <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
       <!DOCTYPE policyconfig PUBLIC
        "-//freedesktop//DTD PolicyKit Policy Configuration 1.0//EN"
        "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/PolicyKit/1/policyconfig.dtd">
       <policyconfig>

         <vendor>Examples for the PolicyKit Project</vendor>
         <vendor_url>http://hal.freedesktop.org/docs/PolicyKit/</vendor_url>

         <action id="org.freedesktop.policykit.example.pkexec.run-frobnicate">
           <description>Run the PolicyKit example program Frobnicate</description>
           <description xml:lang="da">Kr PolicyKit eksemplet Frobnicate</description>
           <message>Authentication is required to run the PolicyKit example program Frobnicate (user=$(user), program=$(program), command_line=$(command_line))</message>
           <message xml:lang="da">Autorisering er pkrvet for at afvikle PolicyKit eksemplet Frobnicate (user=$(user), program=$(program), command_line=$(command_line))</message>
           <icon_name>audio-x-generic</icon_name>
           <defaults>
             <allow_any>no</allow_any>
             <allow_inactive>no</allow_inactive>
             <allow_active>auth_self_keep</allow_active>
           </defaults>
           <annotate key="org.freedesktop.policykit.exec.path">/usr/bin/pk-example-frobnicate</annotate>
         </action>

       </policyconfig>

   and drop it in the /usr/share/polkit-1/actions directory under a
   suitable name (e.g. matching the namespace of the action). Note that in
   addition to specifying the program, the authentication message,
   description, icon and defaults can be specified. Note that occurences
   of the strings $(user), $(program) and $(command_line) in the message
   will be replaced with respectively the user (of the form "Real Name
   (username)" or just "username" if there is no real name for the
   username), the binary to execute (a fully-qualified path, e.g.
   "/usr/bin/pk-example-frobnicate") and the command-line, e.g.
   "pk-example-frobnicate foo bar". For example, for the action defined
   above, the following authentication dialog will be shown:

       [IMAGE][2]

           +----------------------------------------------------------+
           |                     Authenticate                     [X] |
           +----------------------------------------------------------+
           |                                                          |
           |  [Icon]  Authentication is required to run the PolicyKit |
           |          example program Frobnicate                      |
           |                                                          |
           |          An application is attempting to perform an      |
           |          action that requires privileges. Authentication |
           |          is required to perform this action.             |
           |                                                          |
           |          Password: [__________________________________]  |
           |                                                          |
           | [V] Details:                                             |
           |  Command: /usr/bin/pk-example-frobnicate                 |
           |  Run As:  Super User (root)                              |
           |  Action:  org.fd.pk.example.pkexec.run-frobnicate        |
           |  Vendor:  Examples for the PolicyKit Project             |
           |                                                          |
           |                                  [Cancel] [Authenticate] |
           +----------------------------------------------------------+

   If the user is using the da_DK locale, the dialog looks like this:

       [IMAGE][3]

           +----------------------------------------------------------+
           |                     Autorisering                     [X] |
           +----------------------------------------------------------+
           |                                                          |
           |  [Icon]  Autorisering er pkrvet for at afvikle         |
           |          PolicyKit eksemplet Frobnicate                  |
           |                                                          |
           |          Et program forsger at udfre en handling der   |
           |          krver privilegier. Autorisering er pkrvet.   |
           |                                                          |
           |          Kodeord: [___________________________________]  |
           |                                                          |
           | [V] Detaljer:                                            |
           |  Bruger:   Super User (root)                             |
           |  Program:  /usr/bin/pk-example-frobnicate                |
           |  Handling: org.fd.pk.example.pkexec.run-frobnicate       |
           |  Vendor:   Examples for the PolicyKit Project            |
           |                                                          |
           |                                [Annullr] [Autorisering] |
           +----------------------------------------------------------+

   Note that pkexec does no validation of the ARGUMENTS passed to PROGRAM.
   In the normal case (where administrator authentication is required
   every time pkexec is used), this is not a problem since if the user is
   an administrator he might as well just run pkexec bash to get root.

   However, if an action is used for which the user can retain
   authorization (or if the user is implicitly authorized), such as with
   pk-example-frobnicate above, this could be a security hole. Therefore,
   as a rule of thumb, programs for which the default required
   authorization is changed, should never implicitly trust user input
   (e.g. like any other well-written suid program).

AUTHOR

   Written by David Zeuthen <davidz@redhat.com> with a lot of help from
   many others.

BUGS

   Please send bug reports to either the distribution or the polkit-devel
   mailing list, see the link
   http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/polkit-devel on how to
   subscribe.

SEE ALSO

   polkit(8), pkaction(1), pkcheck(1), pkttyagent(1)

NOTES

    1. /usr/share/gtk-doc/html/polkit-1/pkexec-bash.png

    2. /usr/share/gtk-doc/html/polkit-1/pkexec-frobnicate.png

    3. /usr/share/gtk-doc/html/polkit-1/pkexec-frobnicate-da.png





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