Which of the following configurations file does sudo read when determining if a user is permitted to run applications with root privileges?

`/etc/audit.conf` is related to system auditing, not `sudo` permissions.

`/etc/shadow` stores encrypted user passwords and related account information.

`/etc/sudo.conf` is a global configuration file for `sudo` to set plugin options, but `/etc/sudoers` contains the actual user permission rules.

The `/etc/sudoers` file is the primary configuration file for the `sudo` program. It specifies which users or groups are allowed to run what commands as which users and from what terminals, optionally without a password.