sudo sometimes fails for me

[Clinton MacDonald]

Friends:

Last week, while we were discussing uninstalling programs, we started 
discussing the uses and abuses of logging in as root. Greg Hamilton 
cautioned that one should *never* log in as root, but use sudo instead 
(not a bad plan). I complained that occasionally I had problems wherein 
sudo failed for me, and revealed my password. Well, it happened again, 
and I recorded the circumstances.

I wanted to start synaptic (the wonderful GUI front end for apt-get -- 
search the archives for how to install these on Yellow Dog Linux) with 
root privileges. Since I knew I wanted to get my console back, I also 
included the "&" token:

[clint@YellowPup]$ sudo synaptic &
[2] 2610
[clint@YellowPup]$ Password:clint_password
-bash: clint_password: command not found
[clint@YellowPup]$

It would seem that there was a bug in sudo, such that it assigned a 
process ID to synaptic *before* asking for my password, then revealed 
the rest of the transaction in clear text.

Of course, the work-around is "don't do that." If I just type "sudo 
synaptic" I get the console back fine. However, old habits die hard, and 
sudo shouldn't reveal my password under *ANY* circumstances.

What do you think?

Best wishes,
Clint

-- 
Dr. Clinton C. MacDonald | <mailto:clint DOT macdonald AT sbcglobal DOT net>