hostnamectl changes hostname without sudo

[enpheebled-git]

If I want to change the hostname on one of my Xubuntu 16.04.1 installations I usually edit /etc/hostname and /etc/hosts, which requires doing the usual 'sudo' to access the files in write mode as both have '-rw-r--r-' permissions.

I recently saw reference to the systemd command 'hostnamectl' which changes the environment variable and edits /etc/hostname at the same time, but I have found that it does not require 'sudo'. I can just enter 'hostnamectl set-hostname <whatever>' in a terminal and the string in /etc/hostname has been changed, without ever being asked for a password.

Is hostnamectl supposed to do that? It means anyone can change the hostname without root access. Surely this should require an admin password to do that.

[enpheebled-git]

A more responsive :D discussion on this issue is at https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/systemd-hostnamectl-changes-hostname-without-sudo-4175592291/

[Dennis N]

I checked hostnamectl set-hostname in Fedora, and it required admin. password to use this command, so it may be Ubuntu's policy setting.

[enpheebled-git]

I checked hostnamectl set-hostname in Fedora, and it required admin. password to use this command, so it may be Ubuntu's policy setting.

Thanks, it seems increasingly certain that this is only an issue in Ubuntu-derived distros. So far it's been tested on Xubuntu 16.04.1, including a fresh unmodified install, and on Linux Mint 18 (a derivative of Ubuntu 16.04) and in each case this problem exists. Everyone with a non-Ubuntu distro has reported that they don't experience this issue.

I have lodged a bug report at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/+bug/1637030 but it's marked as 'security private' for now, so it isn't generally accessible.