How Can I Execute External Commands as a Different User in Go Using os/exec?

Executing External Commands as a Different User with os/exec

Running external commands under a specific user is a common task in system administration and application development. In Go, the os/exec package provides a convenient interface for executing external commands, but it typically executes them under the current user's privileges. This can become problematic when you need to run commands as a different user, especially without relying on external tools like "su" or "bash."

To address this issue, os/exec offers a solution with the syscall.Credential struct, which can be added to the Cmd.SysProcAttr field to specify the user ID and group ID under which the external command should be executed. Here's how you can implement it:

import (
    "fmt"
    "os/exec"
    "syscall"
    "strconv"
    "user"
)

func RunExternalCommandAsUser(username, command string, args ...string) error {
    // Lookup the user by name
    u, err := user.Lookup(username)
    if err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("failed to lookup user %s: %v", username, err)
    }

    // Convert the UID to an integer
    uid, err := strconv.Atoi(u.Uid)
    if err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("failed to convert UID to integer: %v", err)
    }

    // Create a new command object
    cmd := exec.Command(command, args...)

    // Set the SysProcAttr field with the Credential struct
    cmd.SysProcAttr = &syscall.SysProcAttr{
        Credential: &syscall.Credential{Uid: uid, Gid: -1}, // -1 indicates to keep the current group
    }

    // Execute the command
    err = cmd.Run()
    if err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("failed to execute command: %v", err)
    }

    return nil
}

This function takes the username, external command, and any arguments as input and executes the command under the specified user's privileges. It ensures that the external process runs as the intended user without modifying the user privileges of the main Go process.

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