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sudo breaks exception handling in Python in some subtle way. The following test program works fine when run directly, but breaks when run through sudo:
#!/usr/bin/python
import time
def a():
	try:
		while True:
			time.sleep(0.001)
	except KeyboardInterrupt:
		print "a"
def b():
	try:
		a()
	except KeyboardInterrupt:
		print "b"
b()
This is expected:
pierre@pangolin:~$ ./test.py
^Ca
But through sudo you get random behaviour:
pierre@pangolin:~$ sudo ./test.py
^Ca b
pierre@pangolin:~$ sudo ./test.py
^Ca b
pierre@pangolin:~$ sudo ./test.py
^Ca
b
pierre@pangolin:~$ sudo ./test.py
^Ca
pierre@pangolin:~$ sudo ./test.py
^Ca
pierre@pangolin:~$ sudo ./test.py
^Cb
Seen on Ubuntu 12.04 (alpha/beta) and on Fedora 16. Happens more often on Ubuntu though.