touch2sudo is a standalone program if executed authenticates the user either through Touch ID or password. A successful authentication (confirmation) is signaled by a zero exit status from touch2sudo program. To authenticate sudo commands, we configure touch2sudo as SSH_ASKPASS confirmation program, invoked by ssh-agent.

Infact this program can be used for any application that requires user authentication on Mac

Fingerprint authentication is done locally on Mac, but it acts as a gating mechanism for remote sudo authentication.

If you haven't setup Touch ID, you can find the instructions from Apple here

You have two options:

• Install touch2sudo binary using brew (OR)
• Build from source

brew tap prbinu/touch2sudo
brew install touch2sudo

git clone https://github.com/prbinu/touch2sudo

Steps

1. Open touch2sudo.xcodeproj file using Xcode

2. Build: (Product -> Build) If the build is successful, you may see this dialog:

3. Archive: (Product -> Archive -> Distribute Content -> Build Products -> Next -> Save) Save the archive folder. The touch2sudo executable will be in the <ArchiveDir>/Product/usr/local/bin path.

4. Install: Copy touch2sudo binary to /usr/local/bin

5. Run: touch2sudo

Generate a new SSH key pair for sudo:

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/Users/binu/.ssh/id_rsa): /Users/binu/.ssh/id_rsa_sudo
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /Users/binu/.ssh/id_rsa_sudo.
Your public key has been saved in /Users/binu/.ssh/id_rsa_sudo.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
SHA256:6Vf0p0iUzQaiXqjQlUU+BYeTGiQqzUeC7z7iBNg7alE binu@localhostThe key's randomart image is:
+ - -[RSA 2048] - - +
| .. o.o+=++ |
| .o = oo+++ = |
| ..= o oo+.+ + |
|.. E.o o.o + o |
|o o. . S o . .|
| o .. . o . o |
| =. . . . . |
| +..o . |
|o… . |
+ - - [SHA256] - - -+

Start ssh-agent

$ export SSH_ASKPASS=/usr/local/bin/touch2sudo
$ export DISPLAY=0
$ eval $(ssh-agent)
Agent pid 51863

$ ssh-add -L
The agent has no identities.

$ env | grep SSH
SSH_AGENT_PID=51863
SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/var/folders/hm/x1_38yz53td1jty5xgs39dxm2lm58d/T//ssh-JssXsflTuHrC/agent.51862
SSH_ASKPASS=/usr/local/bin/touch2sudo

$ ssh-add -c id_rsa_sudo
Identity added: id_rsa_sudo ([email protected])
The user must confirm each use of the key

To make it work, on remote server you need to configure pam-ssh-agent-auth - a PAM module that does SSH key authentication for sudo. pam-ssh-agent-auth is based on SSH agent-forwarding feature that allow the PAM module to authenticate sudo command using key cached in ssh-agent running on your workstation (Mac).

SSH Agent Forwarding Security To avoid exposure of other keys in your local ssh-agent to the connecting host, you may a use a seperate SSH key (for sudo) with a dedicated ssh-agent for agent-forwarding. Use ForwardAgent option to pass the path/env-var of this sudo ssh-agent.

For the complete information on end to end setup, refer: https://medium.com/@prbinu/touch2sudo-enable-remote-sudo-two-factor-authentication-using-mac-touch-id-df638b7da594