[Pkg-utopia-maintainers] Bug#726028: Bug#726028: policykit-1: Authorisation error in KDE when GREP_OPTIONS include output options

[Michael Biebl]

tags 726028 + moreinfo unreproducible
thanks

Am 11.10.2013 12:58, schrieb James Bannon:
> Package: policykit-1
> Version: 0.105-3
> Severity: important
> 
> Dear Maintainer,
> 
> Setting GREP_OPTIONS in either $HOME/.profile or $HOME/.bash_profile affecting
> grep's output causes authorisation failures in KDE. E.g., try the following:
> 
> export GREP_OPTIONS="--color=auto --initial-tab --line-number"
> 
> When KDE starts, you get an authorisation error from the apt update daemon.
> Also, anything requiring administrative privileges to change, such as Login
> screen, will refuse to grant access. The refusal is not logged in any of the
> usual places that I can see.
> 
> The same applies if an alias is defined like this:
> 
> alias grep='grep --color=auto --initial-tab --line-number'
> 
> In either case, removing --line-number and --initial-tab restores the
> authorisation. Setting --color is OK, so long as it's set to auto.
> 
> The problem does not appear when using GNOME or XFCE, but their respective
> login managers don't source $HOME/.profile or $HOME/.bash_profile. I believe
> the problem would also affect users of XDM and SLIM.
> 
> I thought it may be due to an unguarded call to grep in a system shell script
> somewhere, but I haven't been able to track it down so far.
> 
> If memory serves, Ubuntu and Linux Mint used to have exactly the same problem.
> I believe they fixed it, but don't quote me on that.
> 
> I have logged this as important because, although the workaround is easy to
> apply, it is very confusing. I thought I had a major SNAFU in my configuration,
> until I remembered I experienced the problem before.
> 


Seeing that polkit doesn't call grep in any way, I don't see how setting
this config option would affect it in any way.
Indeed, adding
export GREP_OPTIONS="--color=auto --initial-tab --line-number"
to ~/.profile and using kdm to log into KDE, I can not reproduce the
issue. Trying to run an application via polkit (e.g. pkexec aptitude)
works just fine.

I've also checked the Ubuntu polkit package. It doesn't ship any patches
on top of the Debian package which seem relevant in this regard.

Since I'm not able to reproduce, you'll need to dig deeper yourself.
I'd probably start stracing the relevant processes.

Michael

-- 
Why is it that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life in the
universe are pointed away from Earth?

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