Removal of 'Open as Root' option in PCmanFM

[Alexander Andjelkovic]

I agree that it's a security issue, but here's my proposal:

*) Disable it by default.
*) Make it a viable option in preferences & warn users when enabling
the feature (confirmation dialog).

Regards,
Alexander Andjelkovic

On Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 1:24 PM, Yorvyk <yorvik.ubunto at googlemail.com> wrote:
> Over on the LXDE list Andriy has opened a discussion on the removal of the
> 'Open as Root' option.
>
>>     Hello!
>>
>>     I would like to duscuss a function in subject. Starting a lot of GUI
>> applications (including MS Windows .exe files, browsers, etc.) under root
>> makes linux vulnerable to troyans, backdoors, not mention the cost of a
>> failure of the buggy GUI application when it operates with unlimited
>> privileges is very high. And 'Open folder as a root' starts all of this.
>> Since such kind of escalated privileges (which is much worse than some
>> 'sudo -s' which is unwelcomed and often denied by administrator) is such
>> dangerous no other file managers have such functionality available for a
>> regular user. And no regular user would ever need such functionality but
>> only administrator of multi-user system probably. If regular user wants
>> open folder as root it usually means something was done badly before (for
>> example, missing a group for user) and that should be fixed at that place
>> instead of opening as root. So I think this should be available only in
>> 'advanced' mode, the same way as SUID and SGID changes are available only
>> in 'advanced' mode currently. What do you think?
>>
>>     With best regards.
>>     Andriy.
>
>
> If anybody has any thoughts on this and isn't a member of that list they can
> answer this thread and I will pass them on.
> For  me, it can go, as it has with a lot of other file browsers.  If you
> wish to browse as root then PCmanFM can be opened with 'gksu'. It will make
> it that little bit harder for casual users to fiddle where they shouldn’t.
>
> --
> Steve
>
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