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element-hq / element-desktop

A glossy Matrix collaboration client for desktop.
https://element.io
GNU Affero General Public License v3.0
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riot-web installs a setuid root binary #754

Open foresto opened 4 years ago

foresto commented 4 years ago

Description

On linux, the riot-web package installs /opt/Riot/chrome-sandbox as suid root, granting it superuser privileges to my entire system. This is a security risk.

I realize that this is probably baggage from Electron, but I do not particularly trust Electron or Chromium with system level privileges, and frankly, nobody should be expected to do so just for a chat application. Especially one so focused on privacy and security.

Version information

jryans commented 4 years ago

Yes, you guessed correctly, it's required by the Chromium sandboxing approach that Electron inherits. https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/issues/10509#issuecomment-521982502 provides a summary of the available options, both of which aren't very palatable.

I don't think Riot itself has much choice here unless Chromium makes a change or the desktop app is entirely rebuilt with [insert other tech stack here].