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Capsudo

lastmod 2026-01-16created 2026-01-162 edits

A minimal sudo alternative designed around the object-capability model

About

  • Simplifies privilege delegation by applying the Object-Capability Model instead of the user- and rule-based privilege model of traditional sudo/doas
  • Privileges are expressed not in a configuration file but in a structure where the socket itself is the capability
    • capsudod creates a capability socket that can run a specific command and waits
    • capsudo accesses that socket and can only run the pre-bound command
  • The socket's file permissions (owner, group, mode) alone clearly control who can run what
  • Fits naturally into the Unix permission model, with no user/command matching rules, parser, or complex policy language
  • Especially suited to single-purpose privilege delegation, such as allowing a specific user only to reboot 

# capsudod -s /home/user/reboot-capability reboot &  
# chown user:user /home/user/reboot-capability && chmod 700 /home/user/reboot-capability  
$ capsudo -s /home/user/reboot-capability

  • Easy to use as a sudo/doas alternative on minimal systems such as Alpine Linux
  • A design focused on "who owns this capability" rather than "who can run it"

See also

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