Bug#880601: gdm fails to give wayland an Xauthority file, preventing running applications as root

[Emilio Pozuelo Monfort]

On 02/11/17 12:56, Phil Susi wrote:
> Package: gdm3
> Version: 3.26.1-3
> 
> The man page for gdm3 states that it will create an XAUTHORITY file in
> /var/run/gdm3 and set the environment variable to point to it.  It does
> not do this when running wayland.  Instead it leaves Xwayland configured
> to allow connections only from local processes running as the same user
> ID.  This prevents you from being able to run X applications as root,
> such as gparted or synaptic.  It also means that two users on two
> different terminals using a shared/guest UID can interfere with one
> another's X session, making it a security issue as well.
> 
> Please restore the sane XAUTHORITY settings under Xwayland.

Please forward this request upstream. We are unlikely to add a patch for this.

Cheers,
Emilio