boerhave
January 21st, 2009, 10:39 AM
Problem:
Ownership and file permissions of a user config file were somehow automatically altered from root:root -r--r--r-- to <username>:<username> -rw-r--r--. Furthermore the contents of the file were changed.
Root-owned files having their contents automatically wiped and the file-ownership changed scares me _quite a lot_.
Background:
A recent dist upgrade to 8.10 resulted in sound problems originating in pulseaudio. I removed it as completely as I could (purge + config + init.d scripts that did _not_ get purged (which was annoying)).
After the upgrade the desktop audio application audacious had its output set to pulseaudio. Changing the config back to alsa worked, but was not remembered between closing and opening of audacious. The config file (/home/<username>/.config/audacious/config) _was_ altered but apparently automatically reverted at the moment audacious was closed.
Assuming this was something audacious did itself, and not having the time to look in audacious itself, I first changed permissions on the config to readonly (after applying the change to alsa).
This had no effect, the file was still altered, and the file permissions were reset to rw. This annoyed and amazed me.
I changed ownership of the config file to root and again changed permissions on the config to readonly (after applying the change to alsa).
This had no effect, the file was still altered, root ownership was reverted to user ownership and the file permissions were reset to rw. This annoyed, amazed and scared me.
I downgraded the distribution and pinned everything related to sound, under the working assumption this problem is somehow related. The system is a home desktop so I can afford to block everything incoming for now, but long-term it seems I have a security problem. To be quite honest I am paranoid enough that this problem makes me consider switching distributions (given lack of time to figure out exactly what is going on myself).
Question:
Can anybody replicate this problem and/or know its specific cause and/or solution?
Ownership and file permissions of a user config file were somehow automatically altered from root:root -r--r--r-- to <username>:<username> -rw-r--r--. Furthermore the contents of the file were changed.
Root-owned files having their contents automatically wiped and the file-ownership changed scares me _quite a lot_.
Background:
A recent dist upgrade to 8.10 resulted in sound problems originating in pulseaudio. I removed it as completely as I could (purge + config + init.d scripts that did _not_ get purged (which was annoying)).
After the upgrade the desktop audio application audacious had its output set to pulseaudio. Changing the config back to alsa worked, but was not remembered between closing and opening of audacious. The config file (/home/<username>/.config/audacious/config) _was_ altered but apparently automatically reverted at the moment audacious was closed.
Assuming this was something audacious did itself, and not having the time to look in audacious itself, I first changed permissions on the config to readonly (after applying the change to alsa).
This had no effect, the file was still altered, and the file permissions were reset to rw. This annoyed and amazed me.
I changed ownership of the config file to root and again changed permissions on the config to readonly (after applying the change to alsa).
This had no effect, the file was still altered, root ownership was reverted to user ownership and the file permissions were reset to rw. This annoyed, amazed and scared me.
I downgraded the distribution and pinned everything related to sound, under the working assumption this problem is somehow related. The system is a home desktop so I can afford to block everything incoming for now, but long-term it seems I have a security problem. To be quite honest I am paranoid enough that this problem makes me consider switching distributions (given lack of time to figure out exactly what is going on myself).
Question:
Can anybody replicate this problem and/or know its specific cause and/or solution?