libpam-tmpdir default in 14.10

John Moser john.r.moser at gmail.com
Sun Apr 27 13:49:43 UTC 2014


As a matter of course, can libpam-tmpdir be used throughout the 14.10
development cycle?

libpam-tmpdir sets $TMP and $TMPDIR to /tmp/user/$(id -u)/ and ensures
that the directories exist:

/tmp/user/ 711 root:root
/tmp/user/$(id -u)/ 700 $(id -u):$(id -g)

This prevents /tmp from becoming cluttered, and prevents people from
seeing filenames still in /tmp.  Firefox and Thunderbird put attachment
and downloaded (viewed) file names in /tmp, i.e. if you open a torrent
there's /tmp/fuzzydogs.torrent visible.  With libpam-tmpdir, these files
fall into their own directory, which has restricted access.

In my experience, libpam-tmpdir causes no problems; however I would
suggest running it through a quality assurance cycle before installing
it by default.  I do recommend shipping it installed by default.




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