If you’re familiar with the Terminal, then you’ll know that familiarity with the sudo is essential.
For those who aren’t familiar with sudo, the command tells the system to run any commands following it with administrative privileges.
An example use case is the ability to edit files that would normally block you from doing so.
Because this command can completely break your system if misused, it requires authentication before doing anything.
This command typically requires an admin password, but a simple modification to a specific file allows for authentication using Touch ID.
Using your fingerprint can simplify the authentication process without compromising your system security.
NOTE: Only change the file as instructed. Editing this file has the potential to break the
sudocommand, leaving you without the most common method of administrating your system through the terminal.
Enabling Touch ID
To get started, open your terminal and enter the following command:
sudo nano /etc/pam.d/sudo
The files default contents should look something like this:
# sudo: auth account password session auth include sudo_local auth sufficient pam_smartcard.so auth required pam_opendirectory.so account required pam_permit.so password required pam_deny.so session required pam_permit.so
To enable Touch ID authentication when running sudo commands, simply insert the following line below the second one:
auth sufficient pam_tid.so
The contents of the file should now look something like this:
# sudo: auth account password session
auth include sudo_local
auth sufficient pam_tid.so
auth sufficient pam_smartcard.so
auth required pam_opendirectory.so
account required pam_permit.so
password required pam_deny.so
session required pam_permit.so
To verify that everything is working, open a new tab in your terminal and execute the previous command, or any command that requires sudo.
The system should ask for your Touch ID instead of your admin password.
Conclusion
I hope this article provided you with what you were looking for. If you have any feedback, please leave a comment.
Credits
- Apple – Parts of the Featured Image.
