Posted on 2021-12-21, in Unix, tagged with u2f, sudo

Sudo Button

You can configure PAM to accept u2f as an authentication mechanism for using sudo.

1. Install pam_u2f.
2. Add the following line to the top of /etc/pam.d/sudo:

   auth sufficient pam_u2f.so authfile=/etc/u2f_keys
   

3. Generate /etc/u2f_keys by executing pamu2fcfg.

This is especially useful inside neovim when you execute :w ! sudo dd of=% to write a root owned file. In VIM, you would get the sudo-askpass password prompt, but in neovim the command is executed in a different session that has no access to your tty so it can not ask you for your password. With this setup, your u2f button blinks and you push it.