NetworkManager authentication problems caused by polkit

[ALinuxUser]

The following message, or variations upon it, appears dozens of times, one immediately after the other, in my system log.

<warn> [1531853719.4893] error requesting auth for org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.settings.modify.hostname: Authorization check failed: Failed to open file “/proc/10006/status”: No such file or directory

The problem began when I did the following package update.

apt-cache policy policykit-1
policykit-1:
  Installed: 0.105-20
  Candidate: 0.105-20ubuntu0.18.04.1
  Version table:
     0.105-20ubuntu0.18.04.1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security/main amd64 Packages
 *** 0.105-20 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

When (via the TimeShift backup program) I restored my system to a state before the package was installed, the problem stopped. When I did have the problem, some networks would have trouble connecting.

I asked about the issue on Mint's IRC channel, and no solution - save reinstalling - emerged; but by that point I had not traced the problem to policykit.

Mint 19 x64 Cinnamon. I report this problem here because it seems to me - I might be wrong - an Ubuntu rather than Mint problem.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[ALinuxUser (buntulongername-new)]

I have discovered the cause - or trigger (proximate cause) - for at least most of the instances of this error on my system. It's this command, which I was running regularly via an automated script, and not as root.

nmcli radio wifi

Evidently, polkit - the new version thereof - doesn't like this. This does seem like a bug on Polkit's part. For, why should a normal user not check whether wifi is on?

[rad164 (rad164)]

I have same issue on executing `nm-online` as a normal user.

[ALinuxUser (buntulongername-new)]

Messages of this sort have now started *flooding* my system (journald) log.

[Fabian Eisinger (fabian-eisinger)]

Corresponding bug in polkit project: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/polkit/polkit/issues/6

[ALinuxUser (buntulongername-new)]

Thanks, Fabian, for the link to the polkit bug tracker (I filed that bug against polkit). It seems from that tracker that the problem has now been fixed. However, the fixed version has yet to arrive on Mint. Indeed it may not yet have arrived on Ubuntu. If it has yet to reach Ubuntu, I feel it is unlikely that Mint will get it, until it does reach Ubuntu. What to do in the meantime?

[emoxam (emoxam)]

Any news ?

[Marc Deslauriers (mdeslaur)]

This is likely a bug in network-manager, not policykit...adding network-manager to this.

Also, I don't see any activity on the upstream bug that would suggest it's been addressed in any way.

[Anton (zingfrid)]

To disable warning (and authentication) you can add:

[main]
auth-polkit=false

To the /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf (if you already have [main] section, just add value to it)

[ALinuxUser (buntulongername-new)]

@Anton

Thanks. However, is that safe to do, i.e. it won't compromise security, will it?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.