Provided by: pleaser_0.5.1-4ubuntu0.22.04.1_amd64 
NAME
please.ini - configuration file for access
DESCRIPTION
The please.ini file contains one or more [sections] that hold ACL for users of the please
and pleaseedit programs.
please.ini is an ini file, sections can be named with a short description of what the
section provides. You may then find this helpful when listing rights with please -l.
Rules are read and applied in the order they are presented in the configuration file. For
example, if the user matches a permit rule to run a command in an early section, but in a
later section matches criteria for a deny and no further matches, then the user will not
be permitted to run that command. The last match wins.
The properties permitted are described below and should appear at most once per section.
If a property is used more than once in a section, the last one will be used.
SECTION OPTIONS
[section-name]
section name, shown in list mode
include=[file]
read ini file, and continue to next section
includedir=[directory]
read .ini files in directory, and continue to next section, if the directory does
not exist config parse will fail
MATCHES
name=[regex]
mandatory, the user or group (see below) to match against
target=[regex]
user to execute or list as, defaults to root
rule=[regex]
the regular expression that the command or edit path matches against, defaults to
^$
notbefore=[YYYYmmdd|YYYYmmddHHMMSS]
will add HHMMSS as 00:00:00 to the date if not given, defaults to never
notafter=[YYYYmmdd|YYYYmmddHHMMSS]
will add 23:59:59 to the date if not given, defaults to never
datematch=[Day dd Mon HH:MM:SS UTC YYYY]
regex to match a date string with
type=[edit/run/list]
this section’s mode behaviour, defaults to run, edit = pleaseedit entry, list =
user access rights listing
group=[true|false]
defaults to false, when true, the name (above) refers to a group rather than a user
hostname=[regex]
permitted hostnames where this may apply. A hostname defined as any or localhost
will always match. Defaults to localhost
dir=[regex]
permitted directories to run within
permit_env=[regex]
allow environments that match regex to optionally pass through
regex is a regular expression, %{USER} will expand to the user who is currently running
please. This enables a single rule for a group to modify/run something that matches their
name.
Spaces within arguments will be substituted as `\ ' (backslash space). Use ^/bin/echo
hello\\ world$ to match /bin/echo “hello world”, note that \ is a regex escape character
so it must be escaped, therefore matching a space becomes `\\ ' (backslash backslash
space).
To match a \ (backslash), the hex code \x5c can be used.
To match the string %{USER}, the sequence \x25\{USER\} can be used.
Rules starting exact are string matches and not regex processed and take precedence over
regex matches.
exact_name=[string]
only permit a user/group name that matches exactly
exact_hostname=[string]
only permit a hostname that matches exactly
exact_target=[string]
only permit a target that matches exactly
exact_rule=[string]
only permit a command rule that matches exactly
exact_dir=[string]
only permit a dir that matches exactly
ACTIONS
permit=[true|false]
permit or disallow the entry, defaults to true
require_pass=[true|false]
if entry matches, require a password, defaults to true
reason=[true|false]
require a reason for execution/edit, defaults to false
last=[true|false]
if true, stop processing when entry is matched, defaults to false
syslog=[true|false]
log this activity to syslog, defaults to true
env_assign.[key]=[value]
assign value to environment key
editmode=[octal mode|keep]
(type=edit) set the file mode bits on replacement file to octal mode. When set to
keep use the existing file mode. If the file is not present, or mode is not
declared, then mode falls back to 0600. If there is a file present, then the mode
is read and used just prior to file rename.
exitcmd=[program]
(type=edit) run program after editor exits as the target user, if exit is zero,
continue with file replacement. %{NEW} and %{OLD} placeholders expand to new and
old edit files
EXAMPLES
To allow all commands, you can use a greedy match (^.*$). You should reduce this to the
set of acceptable commands though.
[user_jim_root]
name=jim
target=root
rule=^.*$
If you wish to permit a user to view another’s command set, then you may do this using
type=list (run by default). To list another user, they must match the target regex.
[user_jim_list_root]
name=jim
type=list
target=root
type may also be edit if you wish to permit a file edit with pleaseedit.
[user_jim_edit_hosts]
name=jim
type=edit
target=root
rule=^/etc/hosts$
editmode=644
Naming sections should help later when listing permissions.
Below, user mandy may run du without needing a password, but must enter her password for a
bash running as root:
[mandy_du]
name = mandy
rule = ^(/usr)?/bin/du .*$
require_pass = false
[mandy_some]
name = mandy
rule = ^(/usr)?/bin/bash$
require_pass = true
The rule regex can include repetitions. To permit running wc to count the lines in the
log files (we don’t know how many there are) in /var/log. This sort of regex will allow
multiple instances of a () group with +, which is used to define the character class [a-
zA-Z0-9-]+, the numeric class and the group near the end of the line. In other words,
multiple instances of files in /var/log that may end in common log rotate forms -YYYYMMDD
or .N.
This will permit commands such as the following, note how for efficiency find will combine
arguments with + into fewer invocations. xargs could have been used in place of find.
$ find /var/log -type f -exec please /usr/bin/wc {} \+
Here is a sample for the above scenario:
[user_jim_root_wc]
name=jim
target=root
permit=true
rule=^/usr/bin/wc (/var/log/[a-zA-Z0-9-]+(\.\d+)?(\s)?)+$
User jim may only start or stop a docker container:
[user_jim_root_docker]
name=jim
target=root
permit=true
rule=^/usr/bin/docker (start|stop) \S+
User ben may only edit /etc/fstab, and afterwards check the fstab file:
[ben_fstab]
name=ben
target=root
permit=true
type=edit
editmode=644
rule=^/etc/fstab$
exitcmd=/bin/findmnt --verify --tab-file %{NEW}
User ben may list only users eng, net and dba:
[ben_ops]
name=ben
permit=true
type=list
target=^(eng|net|dba)ops$
All users may list their own permissions. You may or may not wish to do this if you
consider permitting a view of the rules to be a security risk.
[list_own]
name=^%{USER}$
permit=true
type=list
target=^%{USER}$
EXITCMD
When the user completes their edit, and the editor exits cleanly, if exitcmd is included
then this program will run as the target user. If the program also exits cleanly then the
temporary edit will be copied to the destination.
%{OLD} and %{NEW} will expand to the old (existing source) file and edit candidate,
respectively. To verify a file edit, ben’s entry to check /etc/hosts after clean exit
could look like this:
[ben_ops]
name=ben
permit=true
type=edit
editmode=644
rule=^/etc/hosts$
exitcmd=/usr/local/bin/check_hosts %{OLD} %{NEW}
/usr/local/bin/check_hosts takes two arguments, the original file as the first argument
and the modify candidate as the second argument. If check_hosts terminates zero, then the
edit is considered clean and the original file is replaced with the candidate. Otherwise
the edit file is not copied and is left, pleaseedit will exit with the return value from
check_hosts.
A common exitcmd is to check the validity of please.ini, shown below. This permits
members of the admin group to edit /etc/please.ini if they provide a reason (-r). Upon
clean exit from the editor the tmp file will be syntax checked.
[please_ini]
name = admins
group = true
reason = true
rule = /etc/please.ini
type = edit
editmode = 600
exitcmd = /usr/bin/please -c %{NEW}
DATED RANGES
For large environments it is not unusual for a third party to require access during a
short time frame for debugging. To accommodate this there are the notbefore and notafter
time brackets. These can be either YYYYmmdd or YYYYmmddHHMMSS.
The whole day is considered when using the shorter date form of YYYYmmdd.
Many enterprises may wish to permit periods of access to a user for a limited time only,
even if that individual is considered to have a permanent role.
User joker can do what they want as root on 1st April 2021:
[joker_april_first]
name=joker
target=root
permit=true
notbefore=20210401
notafter=20210401
rule=^/bin/bash
DATEMATCHES
datematch matches against the date string Day dd mon HH:MM:SS UTC Year. This enables
calendar style date matches.
Note that the day of the month (dd) will be padded with spaces if less than two characters
wide.
You can permit a group of users to run /usr/local/housekeeping/ scripts every Monday:
[l2_housekeeping]
name=l2users
group=true
target=root
permit=true
rule = /usr/local/housekeeping/tidy_(logs|images|mail)
datematch = ^Mon\s+.*
REASONS
When reason=true, a user must pass a reason with the -r option to please and pleaseedit.
Some organisations may prefer a reason to be logged when a command is executed. This can
be helpful for some situations where something such as mkfs or useradd might be preferable
to be logged against a ticket.
[l2_user_admin]
name=l2users
group=true
target=root
permit=true
reason=true
rule = ^/usr/sbin/useradd -m \w+$
Perhaps you want to add a mini mollyguard:
[user_poweroff]
name = l2users
group = true
rule = (/usr)?/s?bin/(shutdown( -h now)?|poweroff|reboot)
require_pass = true
reason = true
DIR
In some situations you may only want a command to run within a set of directories. The
directory is specified with the -d argument to please. For example, a program may output
to the current working directory, which may only be desirable in certain locations.
[eng_build_aliases]
name=l2users
group=true
dir=^/etc/mail$
rule = ^/usr/local/bin/build_aliases$
LAST
last=true stops processing at a match:
[mkfs]
name=l2users
group=true
target=root
permit=true
reason=true
rule = ^/sbin/mkfs.(ext[234]|xfs) /dev/sd[bcdefg]\d?$
last=true
For simplicity, there is no need to process other configured rules if certain that the
l2users group are safe to execute this. last should only be used in situations where
there will never be something that could contradict the match in an undesired way later.
SYSLOG
By default entries are logged to syslog. If you do not wish an entry to be logged then
specify syslog=false. In this case jim can run anything in /usr/bin/ as root and it will
not be logged.
[maverick]
syslog = false
name = jim
rule = /usr/bin/.*
reason = false
FILES
/etc/please.ini
NOTES
At a later date repeated properties within the same section may be treated as a match
list.
At a later date sections with names containing `default' may behave differently to normal
sections.
CONTRIBUTIONS
I welcome pull requests with open arms. New features always considered.
BUGS
Found a bug? Please either open a ticket or send a pull request/patch.
SEE ALSO
please(1)
AUTHORS
Ed Neville (ed-please@s5h.net).