Bug 7630

Summary:	quick fix for x client setuid security hole
Product:	Gentoo Linux	Reporter:	psypete <psypete>
Component:	Current packages	Assignee:	Martin Schlemmer (RETIRED) <azarah>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED
Severity:	normal	CC:	cody, kevin
Priority:	High
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	x86
OS:	Linux
URL:	http://www.xfree86.org/4.2.1/RELNOTES2.html#3
Whiteboard:
Package list:		Runtime testing required:	---

Description psypete 2002-09-07 16:37:13 UTC

gentoo has a setuid-root xterm as well as other setuid-root x terminals. this is
BAD. this is always BAD but it gets even worse when there's a zlib/Xlib bug in
XFree86 which could cause loading of arbitrary code or other weird security issues.

the x clients are setuid because they need access to write to utmp when someone
logs in. well debian appears to handle it correctly, so i propose we make a new
group utmp and chown root:utmp /var/run/utmp then chmod 2664 /var/run/utmp. then
we change all the setuid-root x terminals to chown root:utmp and chmod 2755.
then we'd only have to worry about utmp being messed with.

Comment 1 Martin Schlemmer (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2002-09-07 17:46:01 UTC

ok, baselayout-1.8.3 is on CVS .. should get utmp and wtmp ready.  xfree-4.2.1
to follow.

Comment 2 Martin Schlemmer (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2002-09-08 04:58:41 UTC

*** Bug 2618 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***