GNU bug report logs - #36508
GDM files have incorrect owner after temporarily replacing with SDDM

Previous Next

Full log

Message #41 received at 36508 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Mark H Weaver <mhw <at> netris.org>
To: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
Cc: Brendan Tildesley <btild <at> mailbox.org>, 36508 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#36508: GDM files have incorrect owner after temporarily
 removing service
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2021 18:22:49 -0400

Hi Ludovic,

Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org> wrote:
>>> Note that the ID allocation strategy in (gnu build accounts) ensures
>>> UIDs/GIDs aren’t reused right away (same strategy as implemented by
>>> Shadow, etc.).  So if you remove “bob”, then add “alice”, “alice” won’t
>>> be able to access the left-behind /home/bob because it has a different
>>> UID.

I replied:
>> This mechanism is insufficient, because it only avoids the problem if
>> you add "alice" at the same time that "bob" is removed.  If you remove
>> "bob" during one system activation, and then later add "alice", then
>> "alice" might well be able to access bob's left-behind files.

Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org> responded:
> To be clear, it’s doing the same as any other GNU/Linux distro.

I don't think that's quite right.

It's true that if you delete a user or group on another distro and then
re-add it, it might not be assigned the same UID/GID.  That much is the
same as any other distro.

The key difference is this: On Debian, at least in my experience, users
and groups are *never* deleted automatically.  They are only added
automatically, but never removed unless you explicitly ask to remove
them.  So, this problem does not arise in practice.

      Thanks,
        Mark

Previous Next

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.