starred/terminal
1
0
Fork 0
mirror of https://github.com/microsoft/terminal.git synced 2026-07-08 18:16:28 +00:00
Code Issues 19.0k Packages Projects Releases 20 Wiki Activity

Sudo/command line only elevation? #207

New Issue
Open
opened 2026-01-30 21:45:38 +00:00 by claunia · 0 comments
claunia commented 2026-01-30 21:45:38 +00:00
Owner
Copy Link

Originally created by @parkovski on GitHub (Apr 3, 2018).

Originally assigned to: @zadjii-msft on GitHub.

I'm not sure this is the right place to ask about this, but I can't think of where the right place would be, so I'm just going to list my thoughts on this.

  • As Windows command line functionality improves to the point that the system can be used remote/headless, this is becoming more of a necessity than an annoyance. Actually, this really comes down to having an official SSH client: SSH connections have to open as Admin, potential security hole.
  • This is not some black magic thing or something that needs a UAC redesign or kernel work. I've experimented a little, and you can create a local service running as the system account which will give you elevated processes from the command line. I didn't pursue this any further though, because I don't have the time to commit to securing and testing the service, but I at least know it's doable.
  • Even if I did want to publish a fully-featured sudo service, many organizations are not going to trust a third-party utility that is that big of a potential security hole, and it's unlikely the official SSH distribution would come configured for it, so now we're back at point one again.
  • There is auto-elevation built into UAC, but only for the Windows publisher. So if this was a system utility, it's not even necessary to run it as a separate service.
  • I think for the vast majority of users, this is entirely unnecessary, and I'd be fine with something that's enabled as a part of dev mode or when installing SSH. Those two cases do need it though.
  • With WSL now we have a weird [restricted token, elevated token] x [regular account, root] scenario going on, where you have to be in the right kind of command prompt to get the correct privileges. If we had Windows sudo, I don't think it'd be too hard to unify it with the WSL sudo command.

Anyways, these are just my thoughts that I wanted to get out there. Happy to hear about any plans/concerns/a better place to have this discussion.

Originally created by @parkovski on GitHub (Apr 3, 2018). Originally assigned to: @zadjii-msft on GitHub. I'm not sure this is the right place to ask about this, but I can't think of where the right place would be, so I'm just going to list my thoughts on this. - As Windows command line functionality improves to the point that the system can be used remote/headless, this is becoming more of a necessity than an annoyance. Actually, this really comes down to having an official SSH client: [SSH connections have to open as Admin, potential security hole.](https://github.com/PowerShell/Win32-OpenSSH/issues/680) - This is not some black magic thing or something that needs a UAC redesign or kernel work. I've experimented a little, and you can create a local service running as the system account which will give you elevated processes from the command line. I didn't pursue this any further though, because I don't have the time to commit to securing and testing the service, but I at least know it's doable. - Even if I did want to publish a fully-featured sudo service, many organizations are not going to trust a third-party utility that is that big of a potential security hole, and it's unlikely the official SSH distribution would come configured for it, so now we're back at point one again. - There is auto-elevation built into UAC, but only for the Windows publisher. So if this was a system utility, it's not even necessary to run it as a separate service. - I think for the vast majority of users, this is entirely unnecessary, and I'd be fine with something that's enabled as a part of dev mode or when installing SSH. Those two cases do need it though. - With WSL now we have a weird [restricted token, elevated token] x [regular account, root] scenario going on, where you have to be in the right kind of command prompt to get the correct privileges. If we had Windows sudo, I don't think it'd be too hard to unify it with the WSL sudo command. Anyways, these are just my thoughts that I wanted to get out there. Happy to hear about any plans/concerns/a better place to have this discussion.
claunia added the Issue-QuestionResolution-Fix-AvailableArea-ServerProduct-Meta labels 2026-01-30 21:45:38 +00:00
Sign in to join this conversation.
No Branch/Tag Specified
Branches Tags
Labels
Clear labels
⛺ Reserved
A11yCO
A11yMAS
A11ySev1
A11ySev2
A11ySev3
A11yTTValidated
A11yUsable
A11yVoiceAccess
A11yWCAG
Area-Accessibility
Area-AtlasEngine
Area-AzureShell
Area-Build
Area-Build
Area-Chat
Area-CmdPal
Area-CodeHealth
Area-Commandline
Area-CookedRead
Area-DefApp
Area-Extensibility
Area-Fonts
Area-GroupPolicy
Area-i18n
Area-Input
Area-Interaction
Area-Interop
Area-Localization
Area-Output
Area-Performance
Area-Portable
Area-Quality
Area-Remoting
Area-Rendering
Area-Schema
Area-Server
Area-Settings
Area-SettingsUI
Area-ShellExtension
Area-ShellExtension
Area-ShellExtension
Area-Suggestions
Area-Suggestions
Area-TerminalConnection
Area-TerminalControl
Area-Theming
Area-UserInterface
Area-VT
Area-Windowing
Area-WPFControl
AutoMerge
Blocking-Ingestion
Culprit-Centennial
Culprit-WinUI
Disability-All
Disability-Blind
Disability-LowVision
Disability-Mobility
External-Blocked-WinUI3
Fixed
Gathering-Data
good first issue
HCL-E+D
HCL-WindowsTerminal
Help Wanted
Impact-Compatibility
Impact-Compliance
Impact-Correctness
Impact-Visual
In-PR
InclusionBacklog
InclusionBacklog-Windows TerminalWin32
InclusionCommitted-202206
Issue-Bug
Issue-Docs
Issue-Feature
Issue-Feature
Issue-Question
Issue-Samples
Issue-Scenario
Issue-Task
Needs-Attention
Needs-Author-Feedback
Needs-Bisect
Needs-Discussion
Needs-Repro
Needs-Tag-Fix
Needs-Tag-Fix
Needs-Triage
No-Recent-Activity
Priority-0
Priority-1
Priority-2
Priority-3
Product-Cmd.exe
Product-Colortool
Product-Colortool
Product-Colortool
Product-Conhost
Product-Conpty
Product-Meta
Product-Powershell
Product-Terminal
Product-WSL
pull-request
Mirrored from GitHub Pull Request
 Resolution-Answered
Resolution-By-Design
Resolution-Duplicate
Resolution-External
Resolution-Fix-Available
Resolution-Fix-Committed
Resolution-No-Repro
Resolution-Won't-Fix
Severity-Blocking
Severity-Crash
Severity-DataLoss
spam
this-will-be-a-breaking-change
Tracking-External
WindowsTerminal_Win32
Work-Item
zAskModeBug
zInbox-Bug
No Label Area-Server Issue-Question Product-Meta Resolution-Fix-Available
Milestone
No items
No Milestone
Projects
Clear projects
No project
Assignees
Clear assignees
claunia
No Assignees
1 Participants
Notifications
Due Date
No due date set.
Dependencies

No dependencies set.

Reference: starred/terminal#207
Delete Branch "%!s()"

Deleting a branch is permanent. Although the deleted branch may continue to exist for a short time before it actually gets removed, it CANNOT be undone in most cases. Continue?