Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 71691
traceroute should start as user root
Last modified: 2015-03-04 20:11:16 EST
Description of Problem: Traceroute cannot be run as normal user, and currently simply doesn't do anything (when run from terminal, it produces an error message telling it cannot be run as non-root). It should ask for the root password, so that it can run as root. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): Limbo2, no upgrade. How Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Try running Traceroute from "All Applications | Internet" Actual Results: Nothing. When run from a terminal: ----------- mtr: Unable to get raw socket. (Executable not suid?) ----------- (Making the executable suid root is a *bad* suggestion; it doesn't even work!) Expected Results: Asking root password, and afterwards running as root. Additional Information: None that I know
Umm, isn't this an mtr problem? Changing component. Anyway, running a program as root is much worse IMO than setting it setuid. If setuid doesn't work, it should be fixed.
I agree that setuid is safer than running things as root, but in this case it's better. This is the result of running xmtr as normal user, with the executable set as setuid: ----------------------------------- Gtk-WARNING **: This process is currently running setuid or setgid. This is not a supported use of GTK+. You must create a helper program instead. For further details, see: http://www.gtk.org/setuid.html Refusing to initialize GTK+. ------------------------------------ I think it's simply a little mistake that it doesn't ask for the root password, like configuration programs do.
Mtr has as history for exploits, thats why is has never been setuid in our distribution and why will stay like that. Anyone is free to setuid the binary himself, but we can't and won't do it by default in our distribution. A general rule for our distro is to have as little setuid binaries as possible, and mtr just doesn't meet the code quality required to be setuid. What i thought we already had done was to make xmtr consolehelper aware, but from what i see it doesn't look like it. I'll fix that, that should be the best of both worlds and thats what we generally do for x11 apps that require root privileges. Read ya, Phil
Thanks
OK, fixed in latest rawhide version mtr-0.49-7 Read ya, Phil