[gentoo-user] xorg-server without suid still runs as root?

[gentoo-user] xorg-server without suid still runs as root?

[Nikos Chantziaras]

There's a news item about disabling the "suid" use flag on 
x11-base/xorg-server, which makes it runs as a normal user rather than 
root. Version 1.20.8-r1 of the ebuild disables "suid" by default. After 
updating to that and rebooting, X still runs as root though:

   $ ps aux | grep X
   root 270 1.7 0.6 226892 107052 tty1 Ssl+ 13:52 2:08 /usr/bin/X

   $ emerge --info xorg-server
   [...]
   x11-base/xorg-server-1.20.8-r1::gentoo was built with the following:
USE="ipv6 libglvnd systemd udev xorg -debug -dmx -doc (-elogind) -kdrive 
-libressl -minimal (-selinux) -static-libs -suid -unwind -wayland 
-xcsecurity -xephyr -xnest -xvfb" ABI_X86="(64)"

Am I missing something? I'm using systemd. If it matters, the "kms" use 
flag in x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers is enabled.

Re: [gentoo-user] xorg-server without suid still runs as root?

[John Covici]

On Thu, 25 Jun 2020 08:58:30 -0400,
Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
> 
> There's a news item about disabling the "suid" use flag on
> x11-base/xorg-server, which makes it runs as a normal user rather
> than root. Version 1.20.8-r1 of the ebuild disables "suid" by
> default. After updating to that and rebooting, X still runs as
> root though:
> 
>   $ ps aux | grep X
>   root 270 1.7 0.6 226892 107052 tty1 Ssl+ 13:52 2:08 /usr/bin/X
> 
>   $ emerge --info xorg-server
>   [...]
>   x11-base/xorg-server-1.20.8-r1::gentoo was built with the following:
> USE="ipv6 libglvnd systemd udev xorg -debug -dmx -doc (-elogind)
> -kdrive -libressl -minimal (-selinux) -static-libs -suid -unwind
> -wayland -xcsecurity -xephyr -xnest -xvfb" ABI_X86="(64)"
> 
> Am I missing something? I'm using systemd. If it matters, the
> "kms" use flag in x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers is enabled.

If I do ls -l /proc/<xorg process> both of them are not root, 1 as gdm
and the other as me which got created after I logged in.  Try doing
that and see what you see.

-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici wb2una
         covici@ccs.covici.com

Re: [gentoo-user] xorg-server without suid still runs as root?

[inasprecali]

How are you starting X in the first place?  Are you using a
display manager?  Are you running startx?

In the former case, this is perfectly normal for many display
managers, including SDDM.  GDM, if I'm not mistaken, can and does
run X as a regular user if possible.  Upstream has been talking
about  adding this functionality to SDDM for a while, but so far
it still hasn't been merged.

[gentoo-user] Re: xorg-server without suid still runs as root?

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 25/06/2020 17:24, inasprecali wrote:
> How are you starting X in the first place?  Are you using a
> display manager?  Are you running startx?
> 
> In the former case, this is perfectly normal for many display
> managers, including SDDM.  GDM, if I'm not mistaken, can and does
> run X as a regular user if possible.  Upstream has been talking
> about  adding this functionality to SDDM for a while, but so far
> it still hasn't been merged.

Ah, that explains it them. I'm indeed using SDDM (due to its native 
support in Plasma.)