Bug 98314

Summary: "up2date -u --nox &" is a very bad karma thing to do, when non-su.
Product: [Retired] Red Hat Linux Reporter: Anders <anders>
Component: usermodeAssignee: Nalin Dahyabhai <nalin>
Status: CLOSED NOTABUG QA Contact: David Lawrence <dkl>
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: 9CC: rhn-bugs
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: i686   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2003-07-04 04:00:32 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 Anders 2003-06-30 22:56:15 UTC
Description of problem:
up2date -u --nox &
when run by non-su asks for su password and echoes plaintext to terminal + plus
it fails to authenticate (actually tries to excecute the password as a command)
and then the up2date process dies in the background.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
up2date-3.1.23-1

How reproducible:
100% on this system and others down to RH7.2 that I have tested.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. As non-su, in X (KDE), in xterm or similar.
2. $ up2date -u --nox &
3. Bingo
    
Actual results:
Apart from the echoing, it tries to execute the password as a shell command"

Expected results:
Smooth updating with no echo to terminal.

Comment 1 Adrian Likins 2003-07-03 18:33:07 UTC
This looks to be a bug with the usermode package (which contains the
parts that actually prompt for the passwords and whatnot)
I can duplicate similar behaviour with other utilities. 

Reassigning there.

Comment 2 Nalin Dahyabhai 2003-07-04 04:00:32 UTC
Backgrounded applications aren't allowed to read input from the terminal, so
when the backgrounded instance of userhelper attempts to read the password, it
is suspended.  This is normal.  You'll need to foreground the process
temporarily to give it the password, after which you can suspend and background
it by typing ^Z and then using the "bg" command.  Closing as NOTABUG.