dapper f5 live: administrator mode doesn't work in systemsettings

[Pascal d'Hermilly]

The administrator mode doesnt work in kubuntu dapper f5 livecd when pressing the button in systemsettings or kcontrol.
It goes into administrator mode, but there is no way of clicking apply (still disabled)

[Krzysztof Lichota (krzysiek-launchpad-ubuntu-com)]

I confirm this. All modules requiring administrator privileges do not work. Interestingly, typing _anything_ as password is accepted (red border appears and module is enabled), but the module does not work - it crashes or reports errors.

I have also noticed that any program using kdesu does not work (like running Adept, Adept updater, qtparted, or even "kdesu kwrite" from konsole). Probably the bug is in kdesu.

BTW. It renders dapper unusable, I cannot even setup networking and apply updates.

[Krzysztof Lichota (krzysiek-launchpad-ubuntu-com)]

It is present in both live CD and in system installed from installation CD.

[Pascal d'Hermilly (pascal-tipisoft)]

Does this mean that it wont be possible to update F5 install without reinstalling?
In other words does sudo work?

[Krzysztof Lichota (krzysiek-launchpad-ubuntu-com)]

No, sudo AFAIK works, so you can do "apt-get upgrade", if networking works. kdesu is used to run KDE applications (like administration tools).

[Yuriy Kozlov (yuriy-kozlov)]

The administrator modules and applications work for me, but the kdesu dialog does in fact take anything for a password!
Kubuntu dapper amd64 installed from 2/27 build, latest updates.

A must fix.

[Pascal d'Hermilly (pascal-tipisoft)]

The last time I tried out my dapper install the kdesu worked. But the systemsettings problem is still there.

disclaimer: I tried it 2 days ago, not today.

[Krzysztof Lichota (krzysiek-launchpad-ubuntu-com)]

Yes, kdesu is also working on my dapper with updates.
The problems with some tools remain, but seem to be unrelated to kdesu.

[Yuriy Kozlov (yuriy-kozlov)]

kdesu seems to be working fine now. I wasn't having administrator mode problems so I can't comment on that.

Could someone who is having the problems post a list of the modules where they occur?

[Pascal d'Hermilly (pascal-tipisoft)]

All modules where there is a need for you to press the "administrator mode" button.

[Yuriy Kozlov (yuriy-kozlov)]

Yesterday when I put in a wrong password for kdesu it gave me an incorrect password message. Today it took it again. I don't think I updated anything in between.

[Yuriy Kozlov (yuriy-kozlov)]

If I launch an application that needs priviliges (adept) then kdesu works. If I then go to kcontrol and press an administrator mode button (I tried in network settings), it accepts anything for a password. If I then go to adept again, it also accepts anything for a password.

[Frank Bob (frankbob)]

I experienced this bug after installing the April 6th 2006 daily build of kubuntu.

When trying to configure the network settings with system settings, I could go to administrator mode the first 3 times I tried (that module kept crashing when I tried to configure an interface)

After that I couldn't go to administrator mode. I was never asked for my password. In fact kdesu stopped working completely. kdesu kate did nothing. I tried restarting kdesud but it didn't help.

I think this bug should be critical.

[Tom Chance (tom-acrewoods)]

If it's any help I have a similar problem with a flight6-based fresh install today (kdebase has version 4:3.5.2-0ubuntu8). Adept and its tools complain that they can't open the APT database, Guidance tools just fail to prompt for the root password.

Interestingly, when I run 'kdesu kwrite' it loads KWrite OK, then when I save a file and check the permissions it shows up as having been saved by root. So something is working in there...

[Alexandre Otto Strube (surak)]

Tom, Frank, Pascal, is this issue still there? It's been five days ago....

[Tom Chance (tom-acrewoods)]

OK, Guidance appears to work (I loaded up the display module, went into admin mode, made some changes, applied, no errors or other visible signs of problems).

But Adept still complains that it can't open the APT database. The dialogue title reads "Could not open cache - Adept Manager" and the contents is:

"The APT Database could not be opened! This may be caused by incorrect APT configuration or some similar problem. Try running apt-setup and apt-get update in terminal and see if it helps to resolve the problem"

I've had no problems with apt from the shell.

[TuxFan (make)]

I have latest updates for i686 Dapper and the Administrator Mode for the printers doesn't work.

Steps to reproduce:

1) K-menu ->
2) System Settings ->
3) Printers ->
4) Administrator Mode ->
5) Password prompt, and no matter if I type the right or wrong pw I end up in step 4 without the administrator mode...

If I start systemsettings from command line I get this error:

"kcmshell (kdelibs): WARNING: Could not find module 'printmgr'."

There is /usr/lib/kde3/kcm_printmgr.(la|so), but are they broken?

Otherwise Administrator Mode seems to work for at least in Network Settings and Login Manager...

[Daniel Eckl (daniel-eckl)]

I too want to confirm, that this is a way to gain root privileges without entering a single correct password.

Reproduce: System Settings -> Network Settings -> Administrator Mode -> Enter anything as password -> accepted.

After that kdesu accepts anything as password so the user has full access to the system (just exec "kdesu konsole" for example).

This seems to be related to the sudo password caching function, because opening a konsole and typing "sudo -k" does stop kdesu accepting anything.

The problem is triggered by the System Settings program. When using the orginal kcontrol directly, then this privilege escalation does not work.

But if it can be triggered by a fault in a program running with user privileges, it can be triggered by any malicious program, too!

This is really a very critical security failure!

[Jonathan Jesse (jjesse)]

With Beta release I am not having any problems with that Live CD in regards to system settings. In a normal install I'm able to use printers and do not have the bug with kde mentioned by Daniel Eckl.

Things work great in system settings

[Daniel Eckl (daniel-eckl)]

Well, I have to admit, I have problems reproducing my own report. Perhaps this was connected with an earlier sudo invocation where the password has been cached. Perhaps an update in the meanwhile has fixed something...
I will update this bug in case I can reproduce this.

[Pascal d'Hermilly (pascal-tipisoft)]

These tests were performed on a dapper install fully up to date (10 minuttes ago). Not the beta cd.

>Things work great in system settings

I'm afraid not, though I must admit I didn't get the problem where I could just get in without writing the right password :-)
#1
Trouble was that I couldn't get into printer settings in "administrator mode", it let me enter the password and it reloaded but with no red border and stating that I should try administrator mode.
#2
Another thing that concerns me is that after you press go back it doesn't close the "administrator mode" session(you can go right back to it). This should be closed, as it is not indicated that you have root privileges in the main window.

[TuxFan (make)]

I thought today's update fixed my problem, but it actually made it worse...

Does someone have an idea which packet this bug really belongs to? It would help tracking weather this is fixed in some version or not. My current kde-systemsettings seems to be 0.0svn20060413-0ubuntu1.

After updating I tried to add a printer (using CUPS as the print system). I got the red borders after giving the right pw to the administrator mode password prompt. I have two printers, one SMB and one IPP, but both of their install failed to this message after choosing the right driver (which works well on Breezy):

----8<----
Error - KDE Control Module

Unable to load the requested driver:
                                                                                                                                                            Unable to create the Foomatic driver
[HP-LaserJet_1320,Postscript]. Either that driver does
not exist, or you don't have the required permissions to perform that operation.
----8<-----

After closing this message and canceling the installation the red borders were gone...

I then tried a wrong password to the prompt... and got the red borders! I really was in administrator mode, since I could remove printers from the list. (By printers I mean the "print to file" etc. that are there by default.)

But adding a printer with a wrong pw didn't work, so I'm also guessing like Pascal above, that there are two separate bugs.

[Pascal d'Hermilly (pascal-tipisoft)]

I wasn't able to install a printer either but I figured that it was because I never got root privileges. Now you say that you can't install a printer even though you got the red border... depending on whether or not you actually obtained root privileges, that would be a bug too.

[Jonathan Riddell (jr)]

There's several bugs here. I think the original one is admin mode not working in the Printers kcontrol module. That was fixed yesterday, so I'll mark as Fixed.

Problems with apply in guidance modules is 38582

Adept not working was due to debtags database not updating, I fixed that at the weekend.

[TuxFan (make)]

Yes, the admin mode seems to work now, but I still can't add a printer. I reported it now as a separate bug: #42965

[Jonathan Jesse (jjesse)]

Can this bug be closed as it affected Dapper Flight 5? Can we get this closed?

[Pascal d'Hermilly (pascal-tipisoft)]

Closing because fix was realeased a long time ago.