Bug 2374225 - rpm-ostree incompatible with group permissions
Summary: rpm-ostree incompatible with group permissions
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: rpm-ostree
Version: 42
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Linux
unspecified
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Colin Walters
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2025-06-22 20:07 UTC by Hadmut Danisch
Modified: 2025-12-15 10:51 UTC (History)
10 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:
Type: ---
Embargoed:
fedora-admin-xmlrpc: mirror+


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System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Red Hat Issue Tracker FC-1738 0 None None None 2025-06-22 20:08:57 UTC

Description Hadmut Danisch 2025-06-22 20:07:38 UTC
Hi, 

I had filed this bug already as 2365943 against ecryptfs-utils because of a severe functional regression, but no reaction. 

The problem: 

Until Kinoite 41, ecryptfs-utils could easily be installed and used with rpm-ostree to read and use ecryptfs file systems (delivered from other machines, therefore not trivial to replace with other systems). 


Since Fedora/Kinoite 42, the ecryptfs-utils come with executables not executable for everyone anymore, e.g.  mount.ecryptfs_private is executable only for group ecryptfs. 

Since the group is defined in /lib/group, which is non-writable on immutable systems like Kinoite, there is no direct way to add myself to this group. 


I can add myself to this group after copying the line from /lib/group to /etc/group. After this step, I can use mount.ecryptfs_private.

But then, rpm-ostree denies to upgrade the OS image due to divergence of /etc/group. 


Since I do not get any response to my bug report to ecryptfs-utils, and could not find any documentation about how to deal with that: 


What is the proper way to add users to groups defined in /lib/group without breaking rpm-ostree's update process?

regards




Reproducible: Always

Comment 1 Jonathan Lebon 2025-06-23 14:52:57 UTC
Possibly https://github.com/coreos/rpm-ostree/issues/5365 which will be fixed in the next release.

Can you include the exact output from the command that failed?

Comment 2 Hadmut Danisch 2025-06-23 15:51:21 UTC
The original problem was when trying to run mount.ecryptfs_private   a permission denied, because that is not executable anymore for everyone in Fedora 42, and I can't just change the file permissions in an immutable image. ( ecryptfs-utils package added with rpm-ostree)

usermod -aG ecryptfs MYUSERNAME
is not possible out of the box, since the group ecryptfs is not defined in /etc/group 

I then did 

grep ecryptfs /lib/group >> /etc/group
usermod -aG ecryptfs MYUSERNAME
reboot

in order to allow myself to run  mount.ecryptfs_private. After that, ecryptfs-utils do work as expected. 



But updating the OS image fails then (using the graphical tool). I don't remind the particular error message, and cannot reproduce immediately, since I am already on the latest image. We'll have to wait for the next image to be available for updates. rpm-ostree complains something about the groups. 



I'll reply further after the next image update.

Comment 3 Hadmut Danisch 2025-06-24 23:29:58 UTC
Today, there was a new image available. 

When using the graphical tool (Discover) to update, it says that rpm-ostree transaction failed with error message

error: While applying overrides for pkg ecryptfs-utils: Could not find group 'ecryptfs' in group file



which does not happen, when package ecryptfs-utils is installed, but /etc/group has not been modified (but then, of course, the utils don't work). 


So the question is: How is this supposed to work?

And: Is it a problem of rpm-ostree or of ecryptfs-utils?

Comment 4 Jonathan Lebon 2025-06-25 17:25:11 UTC
OK in that case, yes this should be fixed by https://github.com/coreos/rpm-ostree/pull/5403, which will be in the next rpm-ostree release.

Comment 5 Hadmut Danisch 2025-06-25 18:20:47 UTC
What does this mean? 

a) Would I still have to copy the group entry from /lib/group to /etc/group?

b) When will the „next rpm-ostree release“ come? Fedora 43?

Comment 6 Jonathan Lebon 2025-06-27 13:17:22 UTC
(In reply to Hadmut Danisch from comment #5)
> What does this mean? 
> 
> a) Would I still have to copy the group entry from /lib/group to /etc/group?

Yeah, nothing changes on that front.

> b) When will the „next rpm-ostree release“ come? Fedora 43?

We'll release it in f42. We're probably due for one at this point. But see also https://github.com/coreos/rpm-ostree/pull/5403#issuecomment-2981263677.

Comment 7 Hadmut Danisch 2025-11-06 23:37:53 UTC
After upgrading to Kinoite 43, it still does not work:

error: While applying overrides for pkg ecryptfs-utils: Could not find group 'ecryptfs' in group-file. 


As far as I know this problem occurs on all packages which do define their own groups.

Comment 8 Riku Ahonen 2025-12-13 22:17:48 UTC
I'm having the same issue with wireshark on Silverblue 43. I just reproduced it with a fresh install on a virtual machine:
1. Install Silverblue, let it install latest updates and reboot
2. rpm-ostree install wireshark
3. reboot
4. usermod -a -G wireshark myuser
5. reboot (just to be sure)
6. myuser is not added into wireshark group and wireshark cannot capture without root

Installed groups are visible in /usr/lib/group
$ cat /usr/lib/group | tail -n 2
wireshark:x:963:
usbmon:x:962:

Group addition is logged in rpm-ostreed journal:
Dec 13 23:24:25 fedora rpm-ostree[7223]: Creating group 'wireshark' with GID 963.
Dec 13 23:24:25 fedora rpm-ostree[7223]: Creating group 'usbmon' with GID 962.
Dec 13 23:24:25 fedora rpm-ostree[5104]: Executed %post for wireshark-cli in 63 ms

https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/wireshark/blob/rawhide/f/wireshark.sysusers

Comment 9 Timothée Ravier 2025-12-15 10:51:54 UTC
You want https://gitlab.com/fedora/ostree/sig/-/issues/68


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