[Pkg-privacy-maintainers] Bug#860297: torbrowser-launcher: it is not possible to launch 2 torbrowsers on the same host from 2 different users

[Bernd Schumacher]

Package: torbrowser-launcher
Version: 0.2.6-3.1
Severity: important

Dear Maintainer,

*** Reporter, please consider answering these questions, where appropriate ***

   * What led up to the situation?
2 people on the same system, from 2 different monitors both started torbrowser-launcher.

   * What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
     ineffective)?
   * What was the outcome of this action?
Only 1 person can start a torbrowser. The other person gets a graphical window with the message: Tor unexpectedly exited. This might be due to a bug in Tor itself, .....
   * What outcome did you expect instead?
Both people should be able to start torbrowser in parallel.

Some more information about my system:
bs at majestix:~$ dpkg -l | grep "\<tor"
ii  tor                  0.2.9.10-1  amd64  anonymizing overlay network for TCP
ii  tor-geoipdb          0.2.9.10-1  all    GeoIP database for Tor
ii  torbrowser-launcher  0.2.6-3.1   amd64  helps download and run the Tor Browser Bundle
ii  torsocks             2.2.0-1     amd64  use SOCKS-friendly applications with Tor

If you only have one monitor you can see the error if you do the following with 2 users (in my case user bs and user tim):
# test preparation:
bs at majestix:~$ xhost +
bs at majestix:~$ export LANG=C

# make sure it works with firefox (without tor):
bs at majestix:~$ sudo su - tim /usr/bin/firefox &
bs at majestix:~$ /usr/bin/firefox
# now 2 firefox are running

# test with torbrowser:
bs at majestix:~$ sudo su - tim sh -c /usr/bin/torbrowser-launcher
bs at majestix:~$ /usr/bin/torbrowser-launcher
# it is not possible to launch 2 torbrowsers on the same host from 2 different users
# we get the error in a grapical window: Tor unexpectedly exited. This might be due to a bug in Tor itself, .....
# the window also contains a button "Restart Tor". If the button is pressed it shows the previous error.
# If I stop the torbrowser started as user tim, and press the button "Restart Tor" after that, the torbrowser is started as user bs



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-- System Information:
Debian Release: 9.0
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-2-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages torbrowser-launcher depends on:
ii  ca-certificates  20161130
ii  gnupg            2.1.18-6
ii  python-gtk2      2.24.0-5.1
ii  python-lzma      0.5.3-3
ii  python-parsley   1.2-1
ii  python-psutil    5.0.1-1
ii  python-twisted   16.6.0-2
ii  python-txsocksx  1.15.0.2-1
pn  python:any       <none>
ii  wmctrl           1.07-7+b1

Versions of packages torbrowser-launcher recommends:
ii  tor  0.2.9.10-1

Versions of packages torbrowser-launcher suggests:
pn  apparmor       <none>
ii  python-pygame  1.9.1release+dfsg-10+b2

-- no debconf information