Bug#586685: gdm3: User's .Xauthority file is ignored

Christian Weeks cpw at weeksfamily.ca
Mon Jun 21 16:41:39 UTC 2010


Package: gdm3
Version: 2.30.2-4
Severity: important

It appears that my ~/.Xauthority file is being ignored with gdm3. This appears
to be an undocumented change to gdm functionality for upgrade from gdm.

It's breaking several of my ssh related scripts, since ssh is still honouring
the .Xauthority file, so I can no longer pass authority from one machine to
another. (The old x2x trick doesn't work for example:
ssh -fX myotherhost  x2x -west -to :0
) without a newly required xhost + on the target machine.

Also, it seems that the xauth program doesn't want to work quite correctly-
importing authority from .Xauthority with xauth file doesn't quite take 
correctly. (The above trick should, I believe, work, after I do that, but
doesn't).

These weird sideeffects of what is no doubt an attempt to tighten up security
for gdm3 are why I'm filing this as important- it's clear that either ssh and
other programs need to know about the new default in gdm3 (fun!) or gdm3
should expose a setting for the old behaviour (which it doesn't appear to,
though documentation is very very sparse at this point).

Thanks
Christian

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (700, 'unstable'), (600, 'testing'), (500, 'stable'), (101, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_CA.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_CA.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages gdm3 depends on:
ii  adduser                 3.112            add and remove users and groups
ii  awesome [x-window-manag 3.4.5-1          highly configurable, next generati
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]   1.5.32           Debian configuration management sy
ii  gconf2                  2.28.1-3         GNOME configuration database syste
ii  gnome-session [x-sessio 2.30.0-1         The GNOME Session Manager - GNOME 
ii  gnome-session-bin       2.30.0-1         The GNOME Session Manager - Minima
ii  gnome-terminal [x-termi 2.30.1-1         The GNOME terminal emulator applic
ii  kde-window-manager [x-w 4:4.4.4-1        the KDE 4 window manager (KWin)
ii  konsole [x-terminal-emu 4:4.4.4-1        X terminal emulator for KDE 4
ii  libart-2.0-2            2.3.21-1         Library of functions for 2D graphi
ii  libatk1.0-0             1.30.0-1         The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libattr1                1:2.4.44-2       Extended attribute shared library
ii  libaudit0               1.7.13-1+b1      Dynamic library for security audit
ii  libbonobo2-0            2.24.3-1         Bonobo CORBA interfaces library
ii  libbonoboui2-0          2.24.3-1         The Bonobo UI library
ii  libc6                   2.11.2-1         Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libcairo2               1.8.10-4         The Cairo 2D vector graphics libra
ii  libcanberra-gtk0        0.24-1           Gtk+ helper for playing widget eve
ii  libcanberra0            0.24-1           a simple abstract interface for pl
ii  libdbus-1-3             1.2.24-1         simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2        0.86-1           simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libdevkit-power-gobject 1:0.9.4-2        abstraction for power management -
ii  libfontconfig1          2.8.0-2.1        generic font configuration library
ii  libfreetype6            2.3.11-1         FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii  libgconf2-4             2.28.1-3         GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libglib2.0-0            2.24.1-1         The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnome2-0             2.30.0-1         The GNOME library - runtime files
ii  libgnomecanvas2-0       2.30.1-1         A powerful object-oriented display
ii  libgtk2.0-0             2.20.1-1         The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  liborbit2               1:2.14.18-0.1    libraries for ORBit2 - a CORBA ORB
ii  libpam-modules          1.1.1-3          Pluggable Authentication Modules f
ii  libpam-runtime          1.1.1-3          Runtime support for the PAM librar
ii  libpam0g                1.1.1-3          Pluggable Authentication Modules l
ii  libpanel-applet2-0      2.30.0-2         library for GNOME Panel applets
ii  libpango1.0-0           1.28.1-1         Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libpolkit-gobject-1-0   0.96-2           PolicyKit Authorization API
ii  libpolkit-gtk-1-0       0.96-2           PolicyKit GTK+ API
ii  libpopt0                1.16-1           lib for parsing cmdline parameters
ii  librsvg2-common         2.26.3-1         SAX-based renderer library for SVG
ii  libselinux1             2.0.94-1         SELinux runtime shared libraries
ii  libwrap0                7.6.q-19         Wietse Venema's TCP wrappers libra
ii  libx11-6                2:1.3.3-3        X11 client-side library
ii  libxau6                 1:1.0.5-2        X11 authorisation library
ii  libxdmcp6               1:1.0.3-2        X11 Display Manager Control Protoc
ii  libxklavier16           5.0-2            X Keyboard Extension high-level AP
ii  libxml2                 2.7.7.dfsg-2     GNOME XML library
ii  lsb-base                3.2-23.1         Linux Standard Base 3.2 init scrip
ii  metacity [x-window-mana 1:2.30.1-2       lightweight GTK+ window manager
ii  mutter [x-window-manage 2.31.2-3         lightweight GTK+ window manager
ii  policykit-1-gnome       0.96-2           GNOME authentication agent for Pol
ii  ratpoison [x-window-man 1.4.5-2          keyboard-only window manager
ii  upower                  0.9.4-2          abstraction for power management
ii  xterm [x-terminal-emula 259-1            X terminal emulator
ii  zlib1g                  1:1.2.3.4.dfsg-3 compression library - runtime

Versions of packages gdm3 recommends:
ii  at-spi                        1.30.1-2   Assistive Technology Service Provi
ii  gnome-icon-theme              2.30.3-1   GNOME Desktop icon theme
ii  gnome-power-manager           2.30.1-1   power management tool for the GNOM
ii  gnome-settings-daemon         2.30.1-1   daemon handling the GNOME session 
ii  xnest                         2:1.7.7-2  Nested X server
ii  xserver-xephyr                2:1.7.7-2  nested X server
ii  xserver-xorg                  1:7.5+6    the X.Org X server
ii  zenity                        2.30.0-1   Display graphical dialog boxes fro

Versions of packages gdm3 suggests:
ii  gnome-mag                     1:0.16.1-1 a screen magnifier for the GNOME d
ii  gnome-orca                    2.30.1-1   Scriptable screen reader
ii  gok                           2.30.0-1   GNOME Onscreen Keyboard
ii  libpam-gnome-keyring          2.30.1-2   PAM module to unlock the GNOME key
ii  metacity                      1:2.30.1-2 lightweight GTK+ window manager

-- Configuration Files:
/etc/gdm3/daemon.conf changed:
[daemon]
TimedLoginEnable=false
AutomaticLoginEnable=false
TimedLogin=
AutomaticLogin=
TimedLoginDelay=30
[security]
[xdmcp]
[greeter]
[chooser]
[debug]


-- debconf information:
* shared/default-x-display-manager: gdm3
  gdm3/daemon_name: /usr/sbin/gdm3






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