Public bug reported:
Binary package hint: spamassassin
I'm running spamassassin 3.2.3-0ubuntu1 (gutsy). The SA daemon runs as
an unprivileged user (--groupname=spamd --username=spamd), and therefore
it creates its bayes files chown that user:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:~# ls -al .spamassassin/
-rw------- 1 spamd spamd 1269760 Feb 14 20:44 auto-whitelist
-rw------- 1 spamd spamd 659456 Feb 14 20:45 bayes_seen
-rw------- 1 spamd spamd 5308416 Feb 14 20:45 bayes_toks
-rw-r--r-- 1 spamd spamd 1487 Aug 1 2007 user_prefs
The problem is, the sa-learn utility provides no facility to run as a
different user. If sa-learn is run as root, the bayes_toks file becomes
chown root, and the daemon loses access to it (not sure why... see
below).
This creates an awkward combination of file access issues. The sa-learn
application needs to run as the spamd user (from cron in my case), but
if its host script runs as the unprivileged user it will not have access
read/remove mail files from the maildirs. Running the script as root
gives it the required access, but breaks the bayes_toks file.
There are various ways to work around this issue, but the ones I've come
up with seem hackish. Running multiple scripts, or doing a manual
chown, causes race conditions. I can see two "good" ways to fix this,
both of which should be implemented in sa-learn itself:
1) Give sa-learn the same --groupname/--username options as the daemon has.
That way the host script can run as root while sa-learn still runs as the
proper user.
2) Rework sa-learn to respect the existing file ownership. I don't really
understand why sa-learn changes the ownership of bayes_toks to begin with, so
should it be considered a bug, this might be a quick fix.
** Affects: spamassassin (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
--
sa-learn does not preserve file permissions
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/192036
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