X only needs CAP_SYS_RAWIO to start -- can be disabled after up

From: Mark Gray (markgray@iago.nac.net)
Date: Mon Jul 24 2000 - 03:32:13 EST


I just wanted to point out something a lot of people may be missing,
and that is that once X is up and running, it is quite alright to
disable CAP_SYS_RAWIO

k5 /usr/src/lcap-0.0.3 # ./lcap -c -vv CAP_SYS_RAWIO
Current capabilities: 0xFFFFFFFF
  17) *CAP_SYS_RAWIO
    * = Capability currently allowed
k5 /usr/src/lcap-0.0.3 # ./lcap CAP_SYS_RAWIO
k5 /usr/src/lcap-0.0.3 # ./lcap
Current capabilities: 0xFFFDFFFF
   0) *CAP_CHOWN 1) *CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE
   2) *CAP_DAC_READ_SEARCH 3) *CAP_FOWNER
   4) *CAP_FSETID 5) *CAP_KILL
   6) *CAP_SETGID 7) *CAP_SETUID
   8) *CAP_SETPCAP 9) *CAP_LINUX_IMMUTABLE
  10) *CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE 11) *CAP_NET_BROADCAST
  12) *CAP_NET_ADMIN 13) *CAP_NET_RAW
  14) *CAP_IPC_LOCK 15) *CAP_IPC_OWNER
  16) *CAP_SYS_MODULE 17) CAP_SYS_RAWIO
  18) *CAP_SYS_CHROOT 19) *CAP_SYS_PTRACE
  20) *CAP_SYS_PACCT 21) *CAP_SYS_ADMIN
  22) *CAP_SYS_BOOT 23) *CAP_SYS_NICE
  24) *CAP_SYS_RESOURCE 25) *CAP_SYS_TIME
  26) *CAP_SYS_TTY_CONFIG
    * = Capabilities currently allowed
k5 /usr/src/lcap-0.0.3 #
[snip]

And X continues to run perfectly.
And then when I try to restart it:

Fatal server error:
xf86EnableIOPorts: Failed to set IOPL for I/O

[snip]

And now, of course, I can no longer start X until a reboot.

Capabilities are a splendid feature which needs to be more widely used
on Linux servers in my opinion. It has the potential to be a very
popular feature if properly applied.

(Just a little fact that people following the security discussion from
afar may have missed because it is not being mentioned.)

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