Arch Linux

doblerone

Member

Registered: 2011-12-08

Posts: 215

dropbox asks for root privileges

I installed dropbox from AUR following the wiki and everything was fine so far. I'm using Plasma and when I turn my system on, dropbox is automatically initialize.

Since a couple of days, I realized that dropbox keeps trying to update continuosly, even without modifying the content of dropbox folder. Suddenly, it stops trying and a window appear on my system saying that an action needs root privileges. I always ignore this call.

This is the action that requires root privileges:

 cat /tmp/tmpLNLfq8
#!/bin/bash
chown -R 1000 "/home/david/.dropbox/instance1"
chmod -R u+rwX "/home/david/.dropbox/instance1"
kill -s USR2 17771

I checked what there is in instance1 and there are hundreds of files such as TO_HASH__xxxx.

Is it safe to give root permisions to dropbox?

WorMzy

Forum Moderator

From: Scotland

Registered: 2010-06-16

Posts: 11,845

Website

Re: dropbox asks for root privileges

No.

Moving to AUR issues.

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Silkworm205

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2012-05-21

Posts: 267

Re: dropbox asks for root privileges

I don't like the sound of this. Do you still have the pkgbuild and downloaded archives?
Cross check the checksums with the official binaries if you do to make sure it's clean. In the mean time, I personally would also uninstall dropbox, and check the files it's syncing to make sure they've not been modified, through another machine or the web interface.
(I could just be paranoid, I've recently seen a work machine with ransomware attack our server so I'm jumping at shadows now)

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I think I know enough to know I don't know enough.

doblerone

Member

Registered: 2011-12-08

Posts: 215

Re: dropbox asks for root privileges

Thanks @Silkworm205 for your reply. You're not paranoid, just a bit cautious!
I followed your suggestions and I uninstalled dropbox from my computer. I just have it to sinchronize some files with the lab computer where I can't install owncloud (I'm not the sysadmin).
I'll try to download the official binaries from the official website.

P.S.: I've checked the files and they seem to be OK.

eschwartz

Fellow

Registered: 2014-08-08

Posts: 4,097

Re: dropbox asks for root privileges

Try using the Hack to stop Auto Update.

I am pretty sure this is "normal" behavior.
The fact that Dropbox comes with a builtin auto-updater should be clue enough that they don't actually expect people to install it as root. Which is exactly what installing it to /opt using a PKGBUILD does....

Last edited by eschwartz (2016-03-14 10:42:43)

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Managing AUR repos The Right Way -- aurpublish (now a standalone tool)

phw

Member

Registered: 2013-05-27

Posts: 318

Re: dropbox asks for root privileges

Try using the Hack to stop Auto Update.

I am pretty sure this is "normal" behavior.
The fact that Dropbox comes with a builtin auto-updater should be clue enough that they don't actually expect people to install it as root. Which is exactly what installing it to /opt using a PKGBUILD does....

While Dropbox does auto update by default, it shouldn't require root even if installed to /opt. The auto updated version should get installed into ~/.dropbox-dist . Actually the hack you linked to just makes that impossible.

phw

Member

Registered: 2013-05-27

Posts: 318

Re: dropbox asks for root privileges

I checked what there is in instance1 and there are hundreds of files such as TO_HASH__xxxx.

Is it safe to give root permisions to dropbox?

I think you should check who actually owns those files in ~/.dropbox. Might be that you accidentally started Dropbox as root once your normal user has not sufficient access to those files anymore.

eschwartz

Fellow

Registered: 2014-08-08

Posts: 4,097

Re: dropbox asks for root privileges

While Dropbox does auto update by default, it shouldn't require root even if installed to /opt. The auto updated version should get installed into ~/.dropbox-dist . Actually the hack you linked to just makes that impossible.

Yes, well, I forget/am not sure of the exact conditions for seeing Dropbox ask for root... which is why I instead suggested something which should get the OP into a known good state.

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Managing AUR repos The Right Way -- aurpublish (now a standalone tool)