fix: prevent /tmp permission corruption breaking system updates (#209)

Issue: LEDMatrix was changing /tmp permissions from 1777 (drwxrwxrwt)
to 2775 (drwxrwsr-x), breaking apt update and other system tools.

Root cause: display_manager.py's _write_snapshot_if_due() called
ensure_directory_permissions() on /tmp when writing snapshots to
/tmp/led_matrix_preview.png. This removed the sticky bit and
world-writable permissions that /tmp requires.

Fix:
- Added PROTECTED_SYSTEM_DIRECTORIES safelist to permission_utils.py
  to prevent modifying permissions on /tmp and other system directories
- Added explicit check in display_manager.py to skip /tmp
- Defense-in-depth approach prevents similar issues in other code paths

The sticky bit (1xxx) is critical for /tmp - it prevents users from
deleting files they don't own. Without world-writable permissions,
regular users cannot create temp files.

Fixes #202

Co-authored-by: Chuck <chuck@example.com>
Co-authored-by: Claude Sonnet 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Chuck
2026-01-26 10:56:30 -05:00
committed by GitHub
parent f9de9fa29e
commit 384ed096ff
2 changed files with 46 additions and 6 deletions

View File

@@ -13,27 +13,63 @@ from typing import Optional
logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
# System directories that should never have their permissions modified
# These directories have special system-level permissions that must be preserved
PROTECTED_SYSTEM_DIRECTORIES = {
'/tmp',
'/var/tmp',
'/dev',
'/proc',
'/sys',
'/run',
'/var/run',
'/etc',
'/boot',
'/var',
'/usr',
'/lib',
'/lib64',
'/bin',
'/sbin',
}
def ensure_directory_permissions(path: Path, mode: int = 0o775) -> None:
"""
Create directory and set permissions.
If the directory already exists and we cannot change its permissions,
we check if it's usable (readable/writable). If so, we continue without
raising an exception. This allows the system to work even when running
as a non-root user who cannot change permissions on existing directories.
Protected system directories (like /tmp, /etc, /var) are never modified
to prevent breaking system functionality.
Args:
path: Directory path to create/ensure
mode: Permission mode (default: 0o775 for group-writable directories)
Raises:
OSError: If directory creation fails or directory exists but is not usable
"""
try:
# Never modify permissions on system directories
path_str = str(path.resolve() if path.is_absolute() else path)
if path_str in PROTECTED_SYSTEM_DIRECTORIES:
logger.debug(f"Skipping permission modification on protected system directory: {path_str}")
# Verify the directory is usable
if path.exists() and os.access(path, os.R_OK | os.W_OK):
return
elif path.exists():
logger.warning(f"Protected system directory {path_str} exists but is not writable")
return
else:
raise OSError(f"Protected system directory {path_str} does not exist")
# Create directory if it doesn't exist
path.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
# Try to set permissions
try:
os.chmod(path, mode)

View File

@@ -816,8 +816,12 @@ class DisplayManager:
get_assets_file_mode
)
snapshot_path_obj = Path(self._snapshot_path)
if snapshot_path_obj.parent:
ensure_directory_permissions(snapshot_path_obj.parent, get_assets_dir_mode())
# Only ensure permissions on non-system directories
# Never modify /tmp permissions - it has special system permissions (1777)
# that must not be changed or it breaks apt and other system tools
parent_dir = snapshot_path_obj.parent
if parent_dir and str(parent_dir) != '/tmp':
ensure_directory_permissions(parent_dir, get_assets_dir_mode())
# Write atomically: temp then replace
tmp_path = f"{self._snapshot_path}.tmp"
self.image.save(tmp_path, format='PNG')