Avoid Duplicate Configuration with SUDO 1.9

This document (000020389) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3

Situation

The SLE 15 SP3 ships with sudo 1.9.5p2-1.5 package. With old configuration, running sudo -v will complain about duplicate alias e.g.

Alias "en_GB.UTF-8" already defined

Resolution

To troubleshoot the issue:

Make sure there are no duplicate Cmnd_Alias

s15sp3:~ # sudo -v
s15sp3:~ # cat > /etc/sudoers.d/test <<EOF
> Cmnd_Alias      KILL = /usr/bin/kill
> Cmnd_Alias      KILL = /usr/bin/kill
> EOF
s15sp3:~ # sudo -v
/etc/sudoers.d/test:2:37: Alias "en_GB.UTF-8" already defined
Cmnd_Alias      KILL = /usr/bin/kill
                                    ^

The /etc/sudoers only include the same directory once

s15sp3:~ # sudo -v
s15sp3:~ # cat > /etc/sudoers.d/test <<EOF
> Cmnd_Alias      KILL = /usr/bin/kill
> EOF
s15sp3:~ # sudo -v
s15sp3:~ # tail -3 /etc/sudoers

## Read drop-in files from /etc/sudoers.d
@includedir /etc/sudoers.d
s15sp3:~ # echo "#includedir /etc/sudoers.d" >> /etc/sudoers
s15sp3:~ # tail -3 /etc/sudoers
## Read drop-in files from /etc/sudoers.d
@includedir /etc/sudoers.d
#includedir /etc/sudoers.d
s15sp3:~ # sudo -v
/etc/sudoers.d/test:1:37: Alias "en_GB.UTF-8" already defined
Cmnd_Alias      KILL = /usr/bin/kill
                                    ^

Note: To include extra sudoers configuration use @includedir, for old sudo #includedir

Cause

The above error could be caused by:

Duplicate Cmnd_Alias definition
Bad configuration/Duplicate includedir directive in /etc/sudoers

Additional Information

From sudoers man pages:

It is possible to include other sudoers files from within the sudoers file currently being parsed using the @include and @includedir directives. For compatibility with sudo versions prior to 1.9.1, #include and #includedir are also accepted.

s15sp2:~ # tail -4 /etc/sudoers

## Read drop-in files from /etc/sudoers.d
## (the '#' here does not indicate a comment)
#includedir /etc/sudoers.d

Disclaimer

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