Provided by: pleaser_0.5.1-4ubuntu0.22.04.1_amd64 bug

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).