Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2001 23:27:07 +0100 From: Raf Schietekat <sky92136@skynet.be> To: Matt Piechota <piechota@argolis.org> Cc: FreeBSD-security@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: kdm grants ordinary users root access on 4.4-R Message-ID: <3C1BCE3B.4010102@skynet.be> References: <20011215132828.P59641-100000@cithaeron.argolis.org>
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Matt Piechota wrote:
>[...]
> Strange. My kde2 (or are we talking kde1?) doesn't show this behavior.
The problem doesn't occur in KDE (from /stand/sysinstall, which is
Release 2.2 according to Konqueror's "About KDE") with startx or with
xdm, only with kdm: do you mean you are using kdm without this problem?
> I have used kcontrol the last day or two, and I have no root owned files
> in my home. Although that would shock me since my home is nfs mounted
> without root privs.
This was from a user session when logged in through kdm, nothing to do
with kcontrol (that was a reference to something else, in the original
FreeBSD-questions discussion).
>
> While kcontrol *does* claim that the user is root, I don't seem to have
> any rootly power to change things, such as the kdm properties. I thinking
> kde2 is having problems with the freebsd passwd, although I don't know
> why. I also haven't figured out why kde won't accept my password to
> unlock the screen saver, of the root password so I *can* modify the kdm
> settings as myself. I've been meaning to peek at the code to see why
> those two bit don't work.
Last time I tried, I could run kcontrol from su root in a KDE Konsole
shell, and it was able to change System/Login Manager settings. If it is
started without su root, I cannot give it root privileges through the
window asking for root's password that appears after clicking Modify;
similar thing when trying to set the time from the clock in the
bottom-right corner ("Conversation with su failed."), if I were inclined
to use that instead of my command-line su-root adjtime(2) wrapper (no
permanent connection for NTP). I also can't unlock the screen saver. But
those are all different issues from the subject of this thread.
>
> As for the lack of response, I suppose that if I were very security
> conscious, I wouldn't be running kde (or probably X) in the first place.
So, if you have the temerity to run X, you're on your own, ey? :-)
> There probably aren't too many people on the list that are running kde. :)
Raf Schietekat <Raf_Schietekat@ieee.org>
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