Extension:Sudo

MediaWiki extensions manual

Sudo Release status: unmaintained
Implementation	User identity
Description	Gives the ability for Sudoers on the wiki to login to other users' accounts.
Author(s)	Daniel Friesen (Dantmantalk)
Latest version	0.6.0 (2018-06-29)
MediaWiki	>= 1.40.0
Database changes	No
Added rights sudo
Hooks used SkinTemplateNavigation::Universal UserLogoutComplete
Licence	GNU General Public License 2.0 or later
Download	Download extension Git [?]: Browse repository (GitHub) Gerrit code review Git commit log Download source tarball
Translate the Sudo extension if it is available at translatewiki.net
Issues	Open tasks · Report a bug

The Sudo extension enables granting trusted users the ability to "impersonate" other users, as if they had logged with the account of impersonated users. Its name refers to Unix’s sudo command, which has a similar purpose. This may be used for helping users set their own preferences, changing things under their name or testing how the UI behaves with their account, for example to see effective permissions.

Usage

Users with the sudo permission can temporarily "switch" to any other user using Special:Sudo.

This extension no longer allows changing the email address of an account without knowing its password.

Security

Logging is limited; switches to another user account via Sudo are logged, however there is no tracking of which actions are performed through impersonation. Be careful who you give the permission to, as it can be abused in the worst of ways.

Installation

• Download and move the extracted Sudo folder to your extensions/ directory.
  Developers and code contributors should install the extension from Git instead, using:

  cd extensions/
  git clone https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/extensions/Sudo
  

• Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php file:

  wfLoadExtension( 'Sudo' );
  

• Configure user group and user right at your convenience.
• Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

Configuration

The user right "sudo" will have to be set for an existing user group, e.g. "bureaucrat" or preferably for a new user group:

$wgGroupPermissions['bureaucrat']['sudo'] = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sudo']['sudo'] = true;

Known issues

See phab:maniphest/query/Uaw4sPCoSHql/#R.