Summary: SELinux is preventing /usr/bin/desktop-effects from making the program stack executable. Detailed Description: The desktop-effects application attempted to make its stack executable. This is a potential security problem. This should never ever be necessary. Stack memory is not executable on most OSes these days and this will not change. Executable stack memory is one of the biggest security problems. An execstack error might in fact be most likely raised by malicious code. Applications are sometimes coded incorrectly and request this permission. The SELinux Memory Protection Tests (http://people.redhat.com/drepper/selinux-mem.html) web page explains how to remove this requirement. If desktop-effects does not work and you need it to work, you can configure SELinux temporarily to allow this access until the application is fixed. Please file a bug report. Allowing Access: Sometimes a library is accidentally marked with the execstack flag, if you find a library with this flag you can clear it with the execstack -c LIBRARY_PATH. Then retry your application. If the app continues to not work, you can turn the flag back on with execstack -s LIBRARY_PATH. Otherwise, if you trust desktop-effects to run correctly, you can change the context of the executable to execmem_exec_t. "chcon -t execmem_exec_t '/usr/bin/desktop-effects'" You must also change the default file context files on the system in order to preserve them even on a full relabel. "semanage fcontext -a -t execmem_exec_t '/usr/bin/desktop-effects'" Fix Command: chcon -t execmem_exec_t '/usr/bin/desktop-effects' Additional Information: Source Context unconfined_u:unconfined_r:unconfined_t:s0-s0:c0.c1 023 Target Context unconfined_u:unconfined_r:unconfined_t:s0-s0:c0.c1 023 Target Objects None [ process ] Source ksmserver Source Path /usr/bin/ksmserver Port <Unknown> Host (removed) Source RPM Packages desktop-effects-0.8.4-2.fc12 Target RPM Packages Policy RPM selinux-policy-3.6.32-41.fc12 Selinux Enabled True Policy Type targeted Enforcing Mode Enforcing Plugin Name allow_execstack Host Name (removed) Platform Linux (removed) 2.6.31.5-127.fc12.x86_64 #1 SMP Sat Nov 7 21:11:14 EST 2009 x86_64 x86_64 Alert Count 3 First Seen Mon 16 Nov 2009 11:32:38 GMT Last Seen Mon 16 Nov 2009 11:35:02 GMT Local ID 91e853a3-1707-47f5-8ce3-e579fb4fa4ef Line Numbers Raw Audit Messages node=(removed) type=AVC msg=audit(1258371302.366:27386): avc: denied { execstack } for pid=2479 comm="desktop-effects" scontext=unconfined_u:unconfined_r:unconfined_t:s0-s0:c0.c1023 tcontext=unconfined_u:unconfined_r:unconfined_t:s0-s0:c0.c1023 tclass=process node=(removed) type=SYSCALL msg=audit(1258371302.366:27386): arch=c000003e syscall=10 success=no exit=-13 a0=7fff675f6000 a1=1000 a2=1000007 a3=7fd4a9768aeb items=0 ppid=1 pid=2479 auid=500 uid=500 gid=500 euid=500 suid=500 fsuid=500 egid=500 sgid=500 fsgid=500 tty=(none) ses=2 comm="desktop-effects" exe="/usr/bin/desktop-effects" subj=unconfined_u:unconfined_r:unconfined_t:s0-s0:c0.c1023 key=(null) Hash String generated from selinux-policy-3.6.32-41.fc12,allow_execstack,ksmserver,unconfined_t,unconfined_t,process,execstack audit2allow suggests: #============= unconfined_t ============== allow unconfined_t self:process execstack;
This was on a freshly-installed, fully-updated Fedora 12 (using the RC4 disk); I have the nVidia drivers from rpmfusion installed, but I don't think that's relevant to this issue.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 533987 ***
the nvidia drivers are the issue.