How to run sudo with Paramiko? (Python)

Question

What I've tried:

1. invoke_shell() then channel.send su and then sending the password resulted in not being root
2. invoke_shell() and then channel.exec_command resulted in a "Channel Closed" error
3. _transport.open_session() then channel.exec_command resulted in not being root
4. invoke_shell() then writing to stdin and flushing it resulted in not being root

Answer 1

check this example out:

ssh.connect('127.0.0.1', username='jesse', 
    password='lol')
stdin, stdout, stderr = ssh.exec_command(
    "sudo dmesg")
stdin.write('lol\n')
stdin.flush()
data = stdout.read.splitlines()
for line in data:
    if line.split(':')[0] == 'AirPort':
        print line

Example found here with more explanations: http://jessenoller.com/2009/02/05/ssh-programming-with-paramiko-completely-different/

Hope it helps!

Answer 2

invoke_shell worked for me like this:

import paramiko, getpass, re, time

ssh_client = paramiko.SSHClient()   
ssh_client.connect( host )
sudo_pw = getpass.getpass("sudo pw for %s: " % host)
command = "sudo magicwand"

channel = ssh_client.invoke_shell() 
channel.send( command )       
# wait for prompt             
while not re.search(".*\[sudo\].*",channel.recv(1024)): time.sleep(1)
channel.send( "%s\n" % sudo_pw )

Answer 3

AlexS Fine tuned answer (which I am now using it in production) would be:

def sudo_run_commands_remote(command, server_address, server_username, server_pass, server_key_file):
    ssh = paramiko.SSHClient()
    ssh.set_missing_host_key_policy(paramiko.AutoAddPolicy())
    ssh.connect(hostname=server_address,
                username=server_username,
                password=server_pass,
                key_filename=server_key_file)
    session = ssh.get_transport().open_session()
    session.set_combine_stderr(True)
    session.get_pty()
    session.exec_command("sudo bash -c \"" + command + "\"")
    stdin = session.makefile('wb', -1)
    stdout = session.makefile('rb', -1)
    stdin.write(server_pass + '\n')
    stdin.flush()
    print(stdout.read().decode("utf-8"))

Remove the key_filename part of connect method if you dont use a key file and in contrast if you only use a key without password, remove the password part.

Some notes about this is that, it is multi command capable. Meaning that is is running a bash as root so you can as much commands as you can in a single run with just separating them with ; .

Answer 4

You Can use channel to send sudo password:

  passwd = getpass.getpass()
  ssh = paramiko.client.SSHClient()
  ssh.set_missing_host_key_policy(paramiko.client.AutoAddPolicy())
  ssh.load_system_host_keys()
  ssh.connect(host, allow_agent=True)
  chan = ssh.get_transport().open_session()
  chan.get_pty()
  chan.setblocking(1)

  chan.exec_command("sudo -k dmesg")

  while chan.recv_ready()==False:
      stdout=chan.recv(4096)
      if re.search('[Pp]assword', stdout):
          chan.send(passwd+'\n')
      time.sleep(1)
      
  while chan.recv_ready():
      stdout += chan.recv(20000)
  chan.close()
  ssh.close()

Answer 5

Im sorry i dont have time for details answer but i was able to implement sudo commands on paramiko using this advise

import paramiko
l_password = "yourpassword"
l_host = "yourhost"
l_user = "yourusername"
ssh = paramiko.SSHClient()
ssh.set_missing_host_key_policy(paramiko.AutoAddPolicy())
ssh.connect(l_host, username=l_user, password=l_password)    
transport = ssh.get_transport()
session = transport.open_session()
session.set_combine_stderr(True)
session.get_pty()
#for testing purposes we want to force sudo to always to ask for password. because of that we use "-k" key
session.exec_command("sudo -k dmesg")
stdin = session.makefile('wb', -1)
stdout = session.makefile('rb', -1)
#you have to check if you really need to send password here 
stdin.write(l_password +'\n')
stdin.flush()
for line in stdout.read().splitlines():        
    print 'host: %s: %s' % (l_host, line)

Answer 6

To my mind it would be much easier and secure to create a script which has sudoer rights.

For example, add this to sudoers:

myuser  ALL=NOPASSWD:/home/myuser/somescript.sh

Now you can just invoke the script via paramiko on the host machine and be done with it.

Answer 7

I came up with this:

def ssh_command(ssh_client, command, sudo=False):
    """Like SSHClient.exec_command, but raises if the command fails.

    Otherwise, the stdout result is returned as a string.
    """
    nbytes = 4 * 2e20           # 4 MiB
    with ssh_client.get_transport().open_session() as channel:
        command = 'sudo ' + command if sudo else command

        if sudo:
            channel.set_combine_stderr(True)
            channel.get_pty()

        channel.exec_command(command)

        if sudo:
            while not channel.recv_ready():
                stdout = channel.recv(nbytes).decode('UTF-8')
                if re.search('[Pp]assword', stdout):
                    channel.send(ROBOT_PASSWORD + '\n')
                    time.sleep(1)

        status = channel.recv_exit_status()  # blocking call
        if status != 0:
            if sudo:
                output = channel.recv(nbytes).decode('UTF-8')
            else:
                output = channel.recv_stderr(nbytes).decode('UTF-8')
            raise RuntimeError(f'command {command} exited with {status}, '
                               f'output: {output}')
        return channel.recv(nbytes).decode('UTF-8')

I'm surprised this basic functionality is left for Paramiko users to reinvent themselves.

Answer 8

I was able to run sudo cupsdisable command on the remote server manually without having to enter the password when I login to that server as one of the admin user(not root) but when I execute the same using stdin, stdout, stderr = client.exec_command("sudo cupsdisable <Printqueuename>") it does nothing.

The command that worked for me was:

stdin, stdout, stderr = client.exec_command("sudo -u root /usr/sbin/cupsdisable <printQueuename>")

This is specific to the above mentioned scenario only. Hope this helps someone