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Saved February 14, 2026
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Todd C. Miller, the maintainer of the sudo command for over 30 years, is looking for financial support to continue the project's development. Despite ongoing updates, he faces challenges due to limited resources and rising bug reports. The future of sudo may depend on finding a sponsor or its transition to the newer sudo-rs version.
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Sudo, a command-line utility critical to Unix and Linux systems, is facing a sustainability crisis. Todd C. Miller, its sole maintainer for over 30 years, is actively seeking financial support to continue its development. Since February 2024, when Quest Software ended its sponsorship, Miller has been looking for a new backer. He's still releasing updates, but without adequate funding, his efforts are limited to bug fixes and code maintenance rather than new features.
Recent security vulnerabilities have highlighted the need for ongoing support. A notable example is a heap buffer overflow bug from 2021 that allowed unauthorized users to gain root-level access. In response to memory safety concerns, a new version of the utility, sudo-rs, has been developed in Rust, which should enhance security and reduce attack surfaces. Ubuntu has already adopted sudo-rs as the default implementation since version 25.10, released in October 2025.
Miller has expressed his concerns about the future of sudo. He has no plans to abandon the project but worries about the lack of a successor. He feels a deep responsibility to the tool after dedicating so many years to it. The ongoing struggle for funding reflects a broader issue within the open-source community, where many maintainers face burnout due to insufficient resources and overwhelming demands. Without support, the long-term viability of essential tools like sudo remains uncertain.
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