Canonical announced A change that will surely please some and not so much please others. The company has been gaining a reputation for introducing controversial changes, such as shoehorning in snaps of all kinds, but not all changes are bad. Otherwise, Ubuntu would have long since ceased to be the most popular Linux-based operating system. The next change is a change to sudo, specifically, they will switch to using sweat-rs in 25.10.
In a step towards modernizing its infrastructure, Ubuntu 25.10 will adopt sudo-rs as its default implementation for the command sudoThis change marks an important milestone, as sudor-rs is a reimplementation of the tool written in Peace, a language known for its robust security guarantees and memory management.
What is sudor-rs?
sweat-rs It is a rewritten version of the famous privilege escalation tool sudo, but with the advantage of being developed in Rust. The change aims to mitigate security issues related to memory management, which is crucial for tools that work with elevated system privileges. Additionally, Rust brings a modern approach to systems development, with more efficient resource management.
This project is supported by the Trifecta Tech Foundation, which is dedicated to creating secure, open-source infrastructure components. The implementation of sudo-rs will not be a radical fork, but rather an improvement to the development of sudo itself, ensuring a smooth transition for most users.
Benefits and tests
One of the most attractive features of sudor-rs is that it is fully compatible with the sudo original, which means no changes will be necessary to the way users interact with the tool. This change will be seamless for most users, who will experience no disruption to their workflow.
The change will initially be implemented in Ubuntu 25.10 as a test before its final release in Ubuntu 26.04 LTS versionThe sudo-rs development team has already started working on improvements such as the shell escape prevention (NOEXEC) and profile control AppArmor, which will ensure that the transition is not only efficient, but also safer.
Rust's future-proofing
One of the great incentives for adopting Rust in the development of sudor-rs is its ability to handle security issues arising from memory managementRust aims to avoid vulnerabilities that, in more traditional languages like C, could be a constant concern. This is key, as tools that manage system privileges are critical points in terms of security.
Furthermore, using Rust in the Ubuntu ecosystem may be just the first step. Other projects are being explored, such as SequoiaPGP, an alternative to GnuPG, which is also written in Rust, to ensure greater security in key management in the system.
The integration of sudo-rs in Ubuntu 25.10 marks a significant evolution towards the adoption of more secure and modern toolsAs the project progresses, work is also being done in other areas, such as coreutils and compatibility with security systems such as SELinuxUbuntu is positioning itself as a leader in this transition to a more secure infrastructure, which represents an important step for the Linux user and developer community.
While the change will be gradual, the adoption of sudo-rs is a clear statement that the future of infrastructure software lies in secure memory and long-term sustainability.