X.Org Server 1.20.3 Released To Fix New Security Issue

[puleglot]

Why would people have X.Org setuid'd anyway?

For non-KMS video drivers?

[gwgwg]

Fedora is Wayland by default. Again, it uses XWayland, and you can still choose to use the Xorg session in gdm. But it's default state is Wayland-based.

So not suitable for serious graphics use, since there is no Color Management support in Wayland.

[gwgwg]

Erm, yeah it is more secure. It was built from the ground up with security in mind. You're just cherry picking one thing and theorising what that could lead to security issues.

Amusingly, the same could be said about X11. Lots of theoretical security issues, but hardly a popular attack surface in the *nix world.

[tildearrow]

Instead of Wayland, what we needed was a new implementation of a client server stream protocol,

I need to inform you that you misunderstood what Wayland really is.

Wayland is not an implementation. Wayland is just a protocol. There is no standard Wayland display server.

Wayland does not use any video drivers because it is just a protocol. Compositors are the ones which use video drivers, and implement Wayland.

[schmalzler]

So not suitable for serious graphics use, since there is no Color Management support in Wayland.

Of course there is. Use colord. The problem for me was that my monitor couldn't be detected so it was unusable for me. Probably an issue with my setup. But others seem to do well with it.
So for the moment I am stuck with X + displaycal.

[Vistaus]

While X.org has had its security problems, in fact. Wayland is not more secure. This is due to the basic architecture. Wayland places the device driver and a video GPU hardware attack surface directly into user applications. This means any bug in the GPU will be exposed to the applications, and the possibility of applications through the GPU messing with something else. Also, wayland placing the window manager code into the display server ups the risk more. Having a stream based display protocol with a display server which has the video drivers and have the applications completely isolated from video drivers and the window manager isolated from drivers, is the best way to do things.

Instead of Wayland, what we needed was a new implementation of a client server stream protocol, either X protocol or a new protocol, written in a secure language immune to memory management errors like buffer overruns and hanging pointers, perhaps rust, with well documented and commented code written with a focus on readability to improve security analysis.

This COULD be addressed however on Wayland if the Wayland developers were to develop a Wayland driver for loading into the application that would take the place of a hardware driver, that would instead take any OpenGL and Vulkan calls and window management calls from the application code and send them as protocol commands over a stream to a server that would have the actual hardware drivers in it, and cause the display the apps to a Wayland display. This would also supply us with application<-> server network transparency where you can run an app on one computer and display it to another computer or display on an app by app basis (as opposed to whole desktop network transparency),. Offer SSL support and strong authentication mechanisms for good security when using over network.

One word: Arcan.