A few weeks ago, we got the first interim release of Ubuntu for 2025. The next one, Ubuntu 25.10, is due to come out in October, which is expected to offer new refinements that further improve the desktop experience on one of the most popular Linux distributions around.
Now, they have announced that the upcoming Ubuntu 25.10 release will be moving to a Rust-based alternative of sudo.
sudo-rs in Ubuntu 25.10: What to Expect?
Replacing sudo is sudo-rs, a Rust-based, memory-safe implementation of sudo and su that aims to get rid of memory safety vulnerabilities while improving the security of privilege escalation on Linux.
To put it simply, sudo-rs is a new, safer version of the classic sudo command, which you have most likely used to execute commands with elevated permissions to install or remove new packages on your Linux-equipped computer.
Some notable benefits of sudo-rs include:
A modern codebase that makes it easy to maintain.
Improved error handling with concise error messaging.
Focus on long-term maintenance and future improvements.
Better security thanks to the use of a memory-safe language.
If you prefer sudo, then don't worry. It will still be around for the foreseeable future; it is just that now, sudo-rs is going to become the default mechanism to handle privilege escalation on Ubuntu.
I checked out how sudo-rs ran on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, and it handled common commands like apt update and apt upgrade without any issues, updating the system without any issues.
Canonical's Jon Seager mentions that the sudo-rs developers are collaborating with Todd Miller, the original maintainer of sudo, and to think of sudo-rs as a "handshake across generations of secure systems".
He also added that sudo-rs is not expected to bring over all the features of sudo, as the devs are taking a "less is more" approach, excluding features that are too niche or outdated.
This is the future, at least for Ubuntu. It remains to be seen whether other popular Linux distributions like Debian, Fedora, and OpenSUSE switch to sudo-rs in the coming months.
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Abhishek Prakash
