[Bug 982684] Re: sudo, pkexec don't apply global environment settings from /etc/environment

[Chris Halse Rogers]

(As per IRC, that verification was for both polkit-1 and sudo)

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to sudo in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/982684

Title:
  sudo, pkexec don't apply global environment settings from
  /etc/environment

Status in “policykit-1” package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in “sudo” package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in “policykit-1” source package in Precise:
  Fix Committed
Status in “sudo” source package in Precise:
  Fix Committed
Status in “policykit-1” source package in Quantal:
  Fix Released
Status in “sudo” source package in Quantal:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  [Impact]
  In connection with the recent update-notifier changes (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Specs/UpdateNotifierPackageDataDownloader), some users who were previously able to download the flashplugin via the apt proxy settings are now unable to download it when running, e.g., 'sudo apt-get install'.

  The reason for this is that, even though a global proxy may be
  configured in /etc/environment, sudo does not allow $http_proxy to be
  inherited by default and does not reapply the environment from
  /etc/environment (and from /etc/default/locale) via pam_env.

  The first part is reasonable, but I question the second part.  Since
  these are global config files, I believe it's safe for sudo to apply
  the environment settings by default just as 'su' does; and the
  settings are intended to apply globally, which would include to sudo
  sessions.

  This would make update-notifier work more reliably for users with
  proxies, and would probably help with a variety of other cases where
  global variables are currently not being set as expected for sudo.

  [Test Case]
  1. Set 'http_proxy=invalid' in /etc/environment
  2. Run 'sudo wget http://www.ubuntu.com/', 'pkexec wget http://www.ubuntu.com/'
  3. Verify that the commands return successfully
  4. Install updated sudo, policykit-1 packages from precise-proposed
  5. Repeat the commands from step 2
  6. Verify that the commands now fail with an error about invalid proxies
  7. Remove the http_proxy line from /etc/environment

  [Regression potential]
  Some users may consider it a feature that global settings from /etc/environment are not applied to sudo and/or pkexec.  However, this is not by design; the cost of not being able to correctly support proxies for users is greater than the cost of changing this behavior in an SRU and breaking expectations of users regarding undocumented behavior.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
  Package: sudo 1.8.3p1-1ubuntu3
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-22.35-generic 3.2.14
  Uname: Linux 3.2.0-22-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu3
  Architecture: amd64
  CheckboxSubmission: 017452a27eca3c8b498abbfa5ef91db9
  CheckboxSystem: ecaaad6fa1e0799a0aa1126bf620f39e
  Date: Sun Apr 15 16:41:17 2012
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100816.1)
  ProcEnviron:
   TERM=xterm
   PATH=(custom, user)
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: sudo
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2011-11-08 (159 days ago)

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/policykit-1/+bug/982684/+subscriptions