Don't require password for sudo commands as non-root user

I've recently got a new home server which will run little commands and processes at home. As is good practice - I've disabled root login and created a user with sudo privileges. This step is actually during the Debian install, so it was fairly easy to do.

By default when you enter a sudo command, you need to re-enter your password which can be a pain, especially if you've set your password to a complex pattern or disabled password login and only use SSH keys.

It is possible to disable the need for a password when running sudo commands. Depending on your Debian install, there are two ways of approaching this

Option 1

This is the preferred option and means your changes won't get wiped out by an OS update or upgrade. For the next few steps (and to make sure you only have to enter your password one last time) switch to the super user

$ sudo su

Next, change directory to the /etc folder and list the contents:

$ cd /etc
$ ls

Have a look and see if a sudoers.d folder exists - if it does, carry on. If not, switch to Option 2.

If you're still here, make a new file in the sudoers.d folder - I called mine the name of the user (e.g. mike). To work on sudoers files, we need to use visudo. The commands are very similar to nano but I'll cover what you need to do anyway.

$ visudo -f /etc/sudoers.d/mike

Copy and paste the below line, changing mike to the name of your user

mike ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

Press Ctrl + X then y then Enter - this saves and exits the file. Now change the permissions of the file:

chmod 0440 /etc/sudoers.d/mike

The next step is to ensure this file is being loaded. Open the sudoers file:

$ visudo -f /etc/sudoers

And look for the following line (the # is part of the include, not a comment!)

#includedir /etc/sudoers.d

If it is not present, add it to the bottom of the file.

Type exit to exit out of super user and try a sudo command - hopefully, it should do it without any issues!

The second option is a lot simpler than the first but is prone to be reset during an update or upgrade.

Open the sudoers file (you'll be prompted for your password - this is the last time!)

$ sudo visudo -f /etc/sudoers

And add the following line to the bottom of the file (changing mike to your username)

mike ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

Press Ctrl + X then y then Enter - this saves and exits the file.

You should be good to go!

Best practices

As stated at the beginning of the post, this should only be used in certain circumstances - just bear in mind if someone can log in as you, they can now run any command as sudo - which could be potentially disastrous.

I would recommend disabling password login - making sure your SSH key is on the server before you do this and keeping sudo password on!