Re: Sid Synaptic authenticates with sudo

[Tom H <tomh0665@gmail.com>]

On Fri, Jun 15, 2012 at 7:41 PM, Tom H <tomh0665@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 15, 2012 at 6:08 PM, Mark Allums <mark@allums.com> wrote:
>>
>> Synaptic has begun asking for my user password rather than the root
>> password.  Why is this happening, and how do I make it stop?  I want only
>> users with root privileges to use apt/aptitude/synaptic/gdebi/etc. and I
>> want the original behavior restored.
>
> I don't have a Debian install with a DE to verify the following but
> I'd check "/etc/polkit-1/localauthority.conf.d/" where there's most
> likely a file defining the polkit admin users.
>
> (Do you have users on your system who can sudo to root and not su to root?!)

check "/etc/polkit-1/localauthority.conf.d/51-debian-sudo.conf".

>From "policykit-1_0.96-4+squeeze2.diff":

+binary-install/policykit-1::
+	# when building for Ubuntu, allow the admin group, on Debian use sudo group
+	if [ "$(DISTRO)" = "Ubuntu" ]; then \
+	    /bin/echo -e "[Configuration]\nAdminIdentities=unix-group:admin"
> debian/policykit-1/etc/polkit-1/localauthority.conf.d/51-ubuntu-admin.conf;
\
+	elif [ "$(DISTRO)" = "Debian" ]; then \
+	    /bin/echo -e "[Configuration]\nAdminIdentities=unix-group:sudo"
> debian/policykit-1/etc/polkit-1/localauthority.conf.d/51-debian-sudo.conf;
\
+	fi

Looking at the changelog, this was done (unless I'm misunderstanding
the entry) in 2010:

policykit-1 (0.96-4) unstable; urgency=low

   * debian/rules
     - When building for Debian, install a localauthority.conf.d configuration
       file which considers "sudo" group users as administrators.
       (Closes: #532499)

 -- Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org>  Tue, 16 Nov 2010 23:21:50 +0100