# sudo-rs

17 Hacker News commenters recommended sudo-rs and 32 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Rust rewrite of sudo that removes complexity behind vulnerabilities and drops insecure features; critics note gaps in compatibility with original sudo.

## Why people recommend it

- Memory safety by design (3 comments): "every instance of unsafe that I could find (except one, in test-only code) was a call to libc" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47083638)) "prevents whole classes of vulnerabilities from being introduced in the future" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46875081)) "the rust rewrite of sudo etc. Despite the memory safety advantages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46812327))
- Less code and complexity to attack (3 comments): "sudo-rs precisely removes a lot of complexity that’s the source of vulnerabilities in normal sudo" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46388164)) "there is no value in having a sudo alternative that ditches antiquated, insecure functionality" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46879427)) "thereby producing an overall simpler tool with less surface area to attack" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47946340))
- Reported working well in daily use (2 comments): "I am using sudo-rs on my arch install for over a year havent had any issues yet." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45789873)) "As such a rewrite went so well for sudo-rs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46512110))

## What people warn about

- Rushed into Ubuntu before maturity (4 comments): "replacing perfectly functional software for unfinished buggy Rust versions just to replace C without any needs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45898378)) "they forgot to remove Rust coreutils and sudo-rs from Ubuntu prior to releasing 26.04" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47887002)) "Seeing v0.xxx on a program used by Ubuntu as a base system utility is ridiculous." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47204205))
- Safety record disputed, has unsafe code (4 comments): "sudo-rs for example which is specifically mentioned has a drastically worst safety record than the C sudo." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47142590)) "sudo-rs for example which is specifically mentioned has a drastically worst safety record than the C sudo" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47140396)) "forced into Ubuntu despite bugs and memory unsafety in the Rust implementations" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49375120))
- Compatibility gaps with original sudo (2 comments): "It's a sudo replacement, ideal a one to one replacement, but it's not 100% and for how long?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47134818)) "We already had a problem with sudo-rs not handling all the options that previous sudo did" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49710322))
- Long-term maintenance is uncertain (2 comments): "there is no guarantee that sudo-rs and similar projects will be successful, good and continued to be maintained" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46859115)) "They are very rarely maintainted to the same quality of the originals." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46860095))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [sudo](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sudo.md): 34 recommend
- [doas](https://hackerapproved.com/p/doas.md): 8 recommend
- [run0 (systemd)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/run0.md): 8 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "sudo-rs", https://hackerapproved.com/p/sudo-rs/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).