[PATCH] traceroute: delete the verification of root user

[Bernd Petrovitsch]

Hi all!

On 02.03.25 17:42, tito wrote:
[...]
> So the question is  what to do with the checks and warnings:
> 
> 1) do nothing
> 2) rip out all checks and  just let the system throw cryptic error messages
> 3) follow tradition and continue to warn to educate the user
>   
> I think the 3rd option is the most useful in the long run.
> 
> BTW: newer versions of traceroute use different techniques to perform the trace,
> such as sending UDP packets with increasing TTL (Time-to-Live) values instead
> of raw ICMP packets and do not require raw socket access and so users do not
> need root permissions.
> 
> So if we check for root we can also check for CAP_NET_RAW if needed
> or switch to an implementation that doesn't need root.

And who knows which other similar mechanism exist (not only on Linux but on
*BSD or other Unixoid OSs) and/or will exist - what's e.g. with AppArmor (I
never used it actively) and selinux (I never used it actively either)?

Personally I like the hints about needing to be root and similar. Perhaps -
after killing all checks for UID, GID, capabilites - it's
enough to add "are you root?" after a syscall error and errno == EPERM (if
applicable/useful to that one syscall).
And of course for other errno values too ...

Kind regards,
	Bernd
-- 
Bernd Petrovitsch                  Email : bernd at petrovitsch.priv.at
      There is NO CLOUD, just other people's computers. - FSFE
                      LUGA : http://www.luga.at