Chromium Browser Tries to Read Sensitive Files: –/.ssh –/.gnupg –/.dbus /boot
Posted4 months agoActive4 months ago
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Debian
Chromium browser is reported to be attempting to access sensitive files on Debian 12, raising concerns about its security and privacy.
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I am experiencing very weird and suspicious issue on debian 12.
For context, I am using grsecurity + RBAC, which gives me the possibility to see what files each program wants to access. My issue is not caused by RBAC. but RBAC brought my attention to this issue.
SO, I have upgraded chromium browser to: 138.0.7204.49
and suddenly when chromium starts, in addition to trying to access the usual files in my home, such as ~/.config/chromium or ~/.cache , it now tries to access sensitive folders on my system:
~/.ssh/ ~/.gnupg/ ~/.dbus/ /boot/
(while ~/.dbus is not as immediately alarming as the others, Chromium accessing this when it didn't before is still a change in behavior that deserves scrutiny)
this never happened before. I am sure, because the RBAC rules that I am using would have alerted me.
this is highly suspicious and potentially a serious security issue !
this issue was originally reported on chromium 138, fixed in next version, and now it's back in version 140.0.7339.80