Bad file access on the rise

[Eric Sandeen]

On 6/7/13 3:06 PM, Steve Grubb wrote:
> On Friday, June 07, 2013 08:42:09 PM Matthew Garrett wrote:
>> On Fri, Jun 07, 2013 at 03:35:28PM -0400, Steve Grubb wrote:
>>> So far, the discussion has focused on pulseaudio. But what about the
>>> O_NOATIME issue?
>>
>> Without further analysis, it doesn't tell us much. Does the code attempt
>> to open a file O_NOATIME and then fall back to trying it without?
> 
> It would appear so:
> 
> open("/usr/share/icons/gnome/48x48/status/dialog-password.png", O_RDONLY|
> O_NOATIME) = -1 EPERM (Operation not permitted)
> open("/usr/share/icons/gnome/48x48/status/dialog-password.png", O_RDONLY) = 12
> read(12, 
> "\211PNG\r\n\32\n\0\0\0\rIHDR\0\0\0000\0\0\0000\10\6\0\0\0W\2\371"..., 4096) = 
> 2083
> close(12)                               = 0
> 
> Which is a bad patterm. O_NOATIME requires CAP_FOWNER and I don't think 
> graphic programs are supposed to run as root/privileged. So, there seems to be 
> a misunderstanding of what O_NOATIME is for. It seems to be related to loading 
> icons. Is there a common library for that?
> 
> -Steve
> 

This maybe?

http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gnome.svn/621716

commit 4d2f77074802ac8b2d05f7cdfecef9bebfba2647
Author: Colin Walters <walters <at> verbum.org>
Date:   Mon Aug 27 16:07:39 2012 -0400

    core: Use O_NOATIME to open metadata

    We really don't need atime for metadata, it's just a speed hit.

<it does try, and fall back>

-Eric