gksu-properties

gksu-properties [--help] [--version]

-h, --help
    Display help message and exit

--version
    Print version information and exit

gksu-properties is a GTK+-based GUI utility for configuring settings of the gksu and gksudo commands, which provide graphical frontends to su and sudo for privilege escalation in GNOME environments.

It launches a simple dialog window where users can toggle options like sudo-mode (use sudo instead of su), specify the sudo command path, enable environment variable preservation (keep-env), and control pre-elevation notifications or display info messages.

Changes are saved to the user's ~/.gksu.properties file in INI-like format (e.g., sudo-mode=true). This affects all subsequent gksu invocations for that user.

Originally designed for ease of use in desktop Linux, it simplifies tweaking behaviors without editing config files manually. However, gksu-properties is now deprecated in most distributions due to security flaws in gksu (e.g., predictable temp files owned by root). Modern alternatives include pkexec, polkit-gnome, or doas with graphical agents.

Deprecated: Removed from Ubuntu 18.04+, Fedora, etc., due to security vulnerabilities in gksu. Does not support modern sudo features like timeout policies.

Edits ~/.gksu.properties:
[Options]
sudo-mode=true
sudo-command=/usr/bin/sudo
keep-env=true
notify-keep=true

Use pkexec or gnome-polkit-authentication-agent for secure graphical elevation.

Part of the gksu project started ~2002 by Gonzalo Paniagua Javier for GNOME. Gained popularity in Ubuntu/Debian (2004-2012). Deprecated post-2012 after CVE-2011-2207 (temp file race); succeeded by PolicyKit tools.

gksu(1), gksudo(1), sudo(8), pkexec(1)