# Timeout (12s) waiting for privilege escalation prompt WITH PIPELINING

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/timeout-12s-waiting-for-privilege-escalation-prompt-with-pipelining/33844>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [September 17, 2020, 2:48pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/timeout-12s-waiting-for-privilege-escalation-prompt-with-pipelining/33844 "2020-09-17T14:48:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rjwagner.dba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@rjwagner.dba](https://forum.ansible.com/u/rjwagner.dba)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 2:48pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/timeout-12s-waiting-for-privilege-escalation-prompt-with-pipelining/33844/1 "2020-09-17T14:48:26Z")

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Hey all - I’m hitting the infamous Timeout (12s) waiting for privilege escalation prompt error but only under specific conditions. The task that fails is a loop:

- name: copy files from blob  
shell: “{{ blob\_ssodba\_download\_working\_dir }}/blob\_ssodba\_download.py {{ item }} {{ blob\_ssodba\_download\_dest\_dir | default(blob\_ssodba\_download\_working\_dir) }}”  
with\_items: “{{ blob\_ssodba\_download\_keys }}”  
become: “{{ blob\_ssodba\_become | bool }}”

And blob\_ssodba\_download\_keys contains for items. So the shell command is running four times. The failure always occurs during the 4th iteration of the loop. The error message with -vvv isn’t useful:

Using module file /sso/sfw/virtualenv/ansible29/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible-2.9.9-py2.7.egg/ansible/modules/commands/command.py  
Pipelining is enabled.  
\<[azuseoracle01.vsp.sas.com](http://azuseoracle01.vsp.sas.com)\> ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: None  
\<[azuseoracle01.vsp.sas.com](http://azuseoracle01.vsp.sas.com)\> SSH: EXEC ssh -C -o ControlMaster=no -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o GSSAPIAuthentication=no -o KbdInteractiveAuthentication=no -o PreferredAuthentications=gssapi-with-mic,gssapi-keyex,hostbased,publickey -o PasswordAuthentication=no -o ConnectTimeout=10 [azuseoracle01.vsp.sas.com](http://azuseoracle01.vsp.sas.com) ‘/etc/ansible-wrapper -c ‘"’“'sudo -H -S -p “[sudo via ansible, key=yjyrdwfgvmqyevbiotnpzymsreknqtrd] password:” -u root /etc/ansible-wrapper -c '”’“'”‘"’“'”‘"’“‘echo BECOME-SUCCESS-yjyrdwfgvmqyevbiotnpzymsreknqtrd ; /usr/bin/python’”‘"’“'”‘"’“'”‘"’ && sleep 0’“'”‘’  
fatal: [[azuseoracle01.vsp.sas.com](http://azuseoracle01.vsp.sas.com)]: FAILED! =\> {  
“msg”: "Timeout (12s) waiting for privilege escalation prompt: "  
}

When I watch journalctl -f on the target, I notice a connection is not even attempted during the fourth iteration of the loop. And the error only occurs when pipelining is on.

Any idea what might be going on?

Rob

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**Author:** ![Dick\_Visser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@Dick\_Visser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Visser)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 3:28pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/timeout-12s-waiting-for-privilege-escalation-prompt-with-pipelining/33844/2 "2020-09-17T15:28:37Z")

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Without knowing anything about those scripts, I would try  
adding/removing items to blob\_ssodba\_download\_keys (so with 3 or 5  
items).  
This can reveal if the issue is with the 4th item - or with the last item.

What is the privilege escalation method? I see the string 'oracle' -  
can it be some enterprise/corporate security measure that kicks in?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rjwagner.dba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@rjwagner.dba](https://forum.ansible.com/u/rjwagner.dba)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 5:14pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/timeout-12s-waiting-for-privilege-escalation-prompt-with-pipelining/33844/3 "2020-09-18T17:14:26Z")

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Hey Dick - thanks for your response. I’m using sudo. I bumped timeout to 20s in ansible.cfg and now the playbook completes even with pipelining. While watching the -vvv output, I noticed “Escalation succeeded” after ~12 seconds, so I think I was just barely hitting the timeout. I still don’t understand why it’s timing out without attempting a connection (journalctl output), but honestly, I don’t understand the state machine in ssh.py! Back in business though.

Rob