Debian Bug report logs - #634259
gnome-session: stop-multiple-users dialog fails to clear screen

version graph

Package: gnome-session; Maintainer for gnome-session is Debian GNOME Maintainers <pkg-gnome-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org>; Source for gnome-session is src:gnome-session (PTS, buildd, popcon).

Reported by: Adam Borowski <kilobyte@angband.pl>

Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2011 09:27:02 UTC

Severity: important

Tags: security

Found in version gnome-session/2.30.2-3

Done: Jeremy Bícha <jbicha@debian.org>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

View this report as an mbox folder, status mbox, maintainer mbox


Report forwarded to debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org, Josselin Mouette <joss@debian.org>:
Bug#634259; Package gnome-session. (Mon, 18 Jul 2011 09:27:05 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to "Adam Borowski" <kilobyte@numenor.angband.pl>:
New Bug report received and forwarded. Copy sent to Josselin Mouette <joss@debian.org>. (Mon, 18 Jul 2011 09:27:08 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: "Adam Borowski" <kilobyte@numenor.angband.pl>
To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>
Subject: gnome-session: stop-multiple-users dialog fails to clear screen
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2011 11:26:13 +0200
Package: gnome-session
Version: 2.30.2-3
Severity: important
Tags: security

(I'm not sure if it's gnome-session that displays this dialog; at least its
contents comes from policykit over dbus.)

When the org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.stop-multiple-users dialog is
displayed instead of shutting down, either spuriously (another bug), or, I
guess, perhaps even due to someone else actually being logged in, sometimes
the screen is not completely cleared.

If something sensitive happened to be on the screen when logging off, it
will be left for everyone to see, not protected by the screen saver (as the
session is already gone by that time).  For example, I just had a
gnome-terminal window with a private mail sent on Friday just before leaving
work -- if a co-worker happened to wander by, that stuff was not meant to be
seen.

This can be reproduced by sshing in from another machine (a legitimate
multiple login), then repeatedly trying to shut down.  After a number of
tries, one of windows will remain on the screen.  Curiously, it seems that
it's never one that was on the current desktop you were on at the time of
logoff.  Window decoration is gone but the contents are still there.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 6.0.2
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages gnome-session depends on:
ii  gnome-panel            2.30.2-2          launcher and docking facility for 
ii  gnome-session-bin      2.30.2-3          The GNOME Session Manager - Minima
ii  gnome-session-common   2.30.2-3          Common files for the GNOME session
ii  gnome-settings-daemon  2.30.2-2+squeeze1 daemon handling the GNOME session 
ii  metacity               1:2.30.1-3        lightweight GTK+ window manager
ii  nautilus               2.30.1-2squeeze1  file manager and graphical shell f
ii  policykit-1-gnome      0.96-3            GNOME authentication agent for Pol

Versions of packages gnome-session recommends:
ii  gnome-power-manager           2.32.0-2   power management tool for the GNOM

Versions of packages gnome-session suggests:
ii  desktop-base               6.0.5squeeze1 common files for the Debian Deskto
ii  gnome-keyring              2.30.3-5      GNOME keyring services (daemon and
ii  gnome-user-guide           2.30.1-1      GNOME user's guide

-- no debconf information




Information forwarded to debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org, Josselin Mouette <joss@debian.org>:
Bug#634259; Package gnome-session. (Mon, 18 Jul 2011 09:42:08 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to 634259@bugs.debian.org:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Josselin Mouette <joss@debian.org>. (Mon, 18 Jul 2011 09:42:11 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Message #10 received at 634259@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Josselin Mouette <joss@debian.org>
To: Adam Borowski <kilobyte@numenor.angband.pl>, 634259@bugs.debian.org
Subject: Re: Bug#634259: gnome-session: stop-multiple-users dialog fails to clear screen
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2011 11:41:10 +0200
Le lundi 18 juillet 2011 à 11:26 +0200, Adam Borowski a écrit : 
> If something sensitive happened to be on the screen when logging off, it
> will be left for everyone to see, not protected by the screen saver (as the
> session is already gone by that time).  For example, I just had a
> gnome-terminal window with a private mail sent on Friday just before leaving
> work -- if a co-worker happened to wander by, that stuff was not meant to be
> seen.
> 
> This can be reproduced by sshing in from another machine (a legitimate
> multiple login), then repeatedly trying to shut down.  After a number of
> tries, one of windows will remain on the screen.  Curiously, it seems that
> it's never one that was on the current desktop you were on at the time of
> logoff.  Window decoration is gone but the contents are still there.

Does it happen only with gnome-terminal? Applications are supposed to
exit when they receive the signal from the session manager - that’s why
you don’t see window decorations, metacity having properly quit.

-- 
 .''`.      Josselin Mouette
: :' :
`. `'
  `-





Changed Bug submitter to 'Adam Borowski <kilobyte@angband.pl>' from '"Adam Borowski" <kilobyte@numenor.angband.pl>' Request was from Adam Borowski <kilobyte@angband.pl> to control@bugs.debian.org. (Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:00:04 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Information forwarded to debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org, Josselin Mouette <joss@debian.org>:
Bug#634259; Package gnome-session. (Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:09:03 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Adam Borowski <kilobyte@angband.pl>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Josselin Mouette <joss@debian.org>. (Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:09:03 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Message #17 received at 634259@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Adam Borowski <kilobyte@angband.pl>
To: 634259@bugs.debian.org
Subject: Re: Bug#634259: gnome-session: stop-multiple-users dialog fails to clear screen
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:06:54 +0200
On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 11:41:10AM +0200, Josselin Mouette wrote:
> Le lundi 18 juillet 2011 à 11:26 +0200, Adam Borowski a écrit : 
> > If something sensitive happened to be on the screen when logging off, it
> > will be left for everyone to see, not protected by the screen saver (as the
> > session is already gone by that time).  For example, I just had a
> > gnome-terminal window with a private mail sent on Friday just before leaving
> > work -- if a co-worker happened to wander by, that stuff was not meant to be
> > seen.
> > 
> > This can be reproduced by sshing in from another machine (a legitimate
> > multiple login), then repeatedly trying to shut down.  After a number of
> > tries, one of windows will remain on the screen.  Curiously, it seems that
> > it's never one that was on the current desktop you were on at the time of
> > logoff.  Window decoration is gone but the contents are still there.
> 
> Does it happen only with gnome-terminal? Applications are supposed to
> exit when they receive the signal from the session manager - that’s why
> you don’t see window decorations, metacity having properly quit.

Hrm, sorry for the delay, I was busy at work doing, well, work.

I just reproduced this with unison-gtk, I guess with enough tries other
programs would fail too.  This time, window decoration was intact.

The first machine has metacity + gtk-window-decorator, the other compiz +
emerald, so window manager issues can be probably ruled out.


-- 
1KB		// Yo momma uses IPv4!




Information forwarded to debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org, Debian GNOME Maintainers <pkg-gnome-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org>:
Bug#634259; Package gnome-session. (Wed, 07 May 2014 13:03:09 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to althaser <althaser@gmail.com>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Debian GNOME Maintainers <pkg-gnome-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org>. (Wed, 07 May 2014 13:03:09 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Message #22 received at 634259@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: althaser <althaser@gmail.com>
To: kilobyte@angband.pl
Cc: 634259@bugs.debian.org
Subject: RE: #634259 - gnome-session: stop-multiple-users dialog fails to clear screen
Date: Wed, 7 May 2014 13:59:20 +0100
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
Hey Adam,

this is an old bug.

Could you please still reproduce this issue with newer gnome-session
version like 3.4.2.1-4 or 3.8.4-3 ?

cheers,
althaser
[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Information forwarded to debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org, Debian GNOME Maintainers <pkg-gnome-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org>:
Bug#634259; Package gnome-session. (Thu, 08 May 2014 09:48:16 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Adam Borowski <kilobyte@angband.pl>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Debian GNOME Maintainers <pkg-gnome-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org>. (Thu, 08 May 2014 09:48:16 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Message #27 received at 634259@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Adam Borowski <kilobyte@angband.pl>
To: 634259@bugs.debian.org
Subject: Re: #634259 - gnome-session: stop-multiple-users dialog fails to clear screen
Date: Thu, 8 May 2014 11:21:46 +0200
On Wed, May 07, 2014 at 01:59:20PM +0100, althaser wrote:
> Hey Adam,
> 
> this is an old bug.
> 
> Could you please still reproduce this issue with newer gnome-session
> version like 3.4.2.1-4 or 3.8.4-3 ?

I'm afraid I don't use Gnome[3] anymore, and installing it to test would
take too much work because of hard-dependency on systemd gnome in unstable
already has.  Installing a fresh virtual machine would take quite a bit of
time, too, so I'm sorry but I can't help test this bug right now.

If I recall correctly, reproducing it back in 2011 (on Gnome 2) was a matter
of trying to shutdown Gnome over 20ish times, with policykit forbidding the
shutdown due to it believing there is another user logged on¹.  Thus, the
bug took quite an effort to reproduce.  With the extent of changes Gnome
underwent since then, I believe this report can be dropped unless someone
else can test it.


¹ Those days, policykit had a race that _sometimes_ caused bogus failures
if you had a root shell in a terminal in the session that was being torn
down.  Of course, you can force a legitimate failure by ssh-ing in from
another machine, ie, having an actual other user.

-- 
Gnome 3, Windows 8, Slashdot Beta, now Firefox Ribbon^WAustralis.  WTF is going
on with replacing usable interfaces with tabletized ones?



Reply sent to Jeremy Bícha <jbicha@debian.org>:
You have taken responsibility. (Thu, 06 Nov 2025 22:51:03 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Notification sent to Adam Borowski <kilobyte@angband.pl>:
Bug acknowledged by developer. (Thu, 06 Nov 2025 22:51:03 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Message #32 received at 634259-done@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Jeremy Bícha <jbicha@debian.org>
To: 738612-done@bugs.debian.org, 727190-done@bugs.debian.org, 700900-done@bugs.debian.org, 690596-done@bugs.debian.org, 675620-done@bugs.debian.org, 718686-done@bugs.debian.org, 716876-done@bugs.debian.org, 716778-done@bugs.debian.org, 655691-done@bugs.debian.org, 634259-done@bugs.debian.org, 632785-done@bugs.debian.org
Subject: closing ancient gnome-session bugs
Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2025 17:49:16 -0500
There have been many changes to Debian since this bug was originally
reported. If you are still experiencing this issue with Debian 13 (or
with Debian 12 or Testing or Unstable), please report a new bug.

Thank you,
Jeremy Bícha



Bug archived. Request was from Debbugs Internal Request <owner@bugs.debian.org> to internal_control@bugs.debian.org. (Fri, 05 Dec 2025 07:31:36 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


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