Bug 481512

Summary:	livecd-creator requires root password
Product:	[Fedora] Fedora	Reporter:	Joachim Frieben <jfrieben>
Component:	livecd-tools	Assignee:	Jeremy Katz <katzj>
Status:	CLOSED CANTFIX	QA Contact:	Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	low
Version:	10	CC:	davidz, katzj
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	x86_64
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2009-01-28 20:57:49 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Joachim Frieben 2009-01-25 21:00:57 UTC

Description of problem:
livecd-creator refuses to be launched by an ordinary user. It should be possible to create an ISO image as ordinary user using globally writable directories/files or (better) carry out all necessary operations confined to the user's home directory.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
livecd-tools-020-1.fc10.x86_64

How reproducible:
Always.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Log in as non-root user and launch 'livecd-creator ...' from a shell.
  
Actual results:
System replies "You must run livecd-creator as root".

Expected results:
Creation of live CD image file begins.

Additional info:
I do not see the need for running livecd-creator as root. For creating RPM packages using 'rpm', this mode has long been deprecated. It is much better to set up the build directories locally in the user's home directory and create them as ordinary user with limited rights. As of F10, /usr/src/redhat/.. does not even exist anymore. Even when running 'rpm' as root, the build process happens in root's home directory. The same reasoning applies to livecd-creator, at least in my eyes.

Comment 1 Jeremy Katz 2009-01-28 20:57:49 UTC

We can't create a filesystem with binaries that are owned by (and suid!) root as a regular user... doing so would be a significant security problem as it would give a trivial way to root a box.

Much like mock has to run as root to create a chroot, we have to create the chroot that is the livecd by root.