Bug#252477: xauth won't ever write the .Xauthority file when it could but still will say so
Package: xbase-clients
Version: 1:7.1.ds1-2
Followup-For: Bug #252477
# (unset XAUTHORITY; HOME=/ xauth list; echo $?)
xauth: creating new authority file /.Xauthority
0
so, xauth says:
a) that it's creating a new .Xauthority file under / and
b) that everything went fine
Now lets check that:
# ls -la /.Xauthority
ls: /.Xauthority: No such file or directory
So:
a) xauth actually didn't do anything and
b) nothing is actually well
It could be though, that writing to / is not possible for some reason.
Let's check that:
# touch /.Xauthority
# ls -la /.Xauthority
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 18 15:39 /.Xauthority
So it's just fine writing to /
Afterthought - after searching bugs.debian.org/xbase-clients for xauth one
discovers that xauth and the whole Xauthority authentication scheme related
with it seem to have been in a sore state since about Debian's creation
ten years ago. One can only wonder in what state all of X's related
security infrastructure is. Judging only from the reports about xauth the
picture doesn't seem very bright. Or is it?
*t
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 4.0
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-3-686
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)
Versions of packages xbase-clients depends on:
ii libc6 2.3.6.ds1-8 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii libfontconfig1 2.4.1-2 generic font configuration library
ii libfreetype6 2.2.1-5 FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii libfs6 2:1.0.0-4 X11 Font Services library
ii libgl1-mesa-glx [libgl1] 6.5.1-0.5 A free implementation of the OpenG
ii libice6 1:1.0.1-2 X11 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii libpng12-0 1.2.15~beta5-1 PNG library - runtime
ii libsm6 1:1.0.1-3 X11 Session Management library
ii libx11-6 2:1.0.3-4 X11 client-side library
ii libxau6 1:1.0.1-2 X11 authorisation library
ii libxaw7 1:1.0.2-4 X11 Athena Widget library
ii libxcursor1 1.1.7-4 X cursor management library
ii libxext6 1:1.0.1-2 X11 miscellaneous extension librar
ii libxft2 2.1.8.2-8 FreeType-based font drawing librar
ii libxi6 1:1.0.1-4 X11 Input extension library
ii libxkbfile1 1:1.0.3-2 X11 keyboard file manipulation lib
ii libxmu6 1:1.0.2-2 X11 miscellaneous utility library
ii libxmuu1 1:1.0.2-2 X11 miscellaneous micro-utility li
ii libxrandr2 2:1.1.0.2-5 X11 RandR extension library
ii libxrender1 1:0.9.1-3 X Rendering Extension client libra
ii libxss1 1:1.1.0-1 X11 Screen Saver extension library
ii libxt6 1:1.0.2-2 X11 toolkit intrinsics library
ii libxtrap6 1:1.0.0-4 X11 event trapping extension libra
ii libxtst6 1:1.0.1-5 X11 Testing -- Resource extension
ii libxv1 1:1.0.2-1 X11 Video extension library
ii libxxf86dga1 2:1.0.1-2 X11 Direct Graphics Access extensi
ii libxxf86vm1 1:1.0.1-2 X11 XFree86 video mode extension l
ii x11-common 1:7.1.0-10 X Window System (X.Org) infrastruc
ii zlib1g 1:1.2.3-13 compression library - runtime
xbase-clients recommends no packages.
-- no debconf information
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