Ubuntu
gedit package

  1. Bug #1942542
  2. Comment #0

Comment 0 for bug 1942542

Revision history for this message
Alex (thud) wrote :

Ubuntu 21.04 hirsute
gedit 3.38.1-1

If a file with extended attributes (xattrs) is edited and saved with gedit, the xattrs are lost. This problem - as well as the loss of birth time, reported in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gedit/+bug/1940758 - seems to be caused by gedit creating a new file when saving. Compare this with nano, which does not destroy xattrs.

Steps to reproduce:
1 echo testing > testfile.txt
2 setfattr -n user.test -v "this is my test xattr" testfile.txt
3 getfattr -d testfile.txt
# file: testfile.txt
user.test="this is my testxattr"
4 gedit testfile.txt
make edit and save
5 getfattr -d testfile.txt
no output

This bug also causes a loss of ACLs for the edited file, as they are stored as extended attributes. Because of this I am marking this bug as a security vulnerability.

This bug is not limited to gedit; it applies to a number of other text editors.