Turn off the new ForwardX11Trusted by default, returning to the semantics

of 3.7 and earlier, since it seems immature and causes far too many
problems with existing setups. See README.Debian for details
(closes: #237021).

2 files changed, 13 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/debian/README.Debian b/debian/README.Debian
index cb1444a47..4f076f898 100644
--- a/debian/README.Debian
+++ b/debian/README.Debian
@@ -115,6 +115,15 @@ As of OpenSSH 3.1, the remote $DISPLAY uses localhost by default to reduce
 the security risks of X11 forwarding. Look up X11UseLocalhost in
 sshd_config(8) if this is a problem.
 
+OpenSSH 3.8 invented ForwardX11Trusted, which when set to no causes the
+ssh client to create an untrusted X cookie so that attacks on the
+forwarded X11 connection can't become attacks on X clients on the remote
+machine. However, this has some problems in implementation - notably a
+very short timeout of the untrusted cookie - breaks large numbers of
+existing setups, and generally seems immature. The Debian package
+therefore sets the default for this option to "no" (in ssh itself,
+rather than in ssh_config).
+
 Fallback to RSH
 ---------------
 
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index ef6d73a81..3d3ed1275 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 openssh (1:3.8p1-2) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
 
   * Disable PasswordAuthentication for new installations (closes: #236810).
+  * Turn off the new ForwardX11Trusted by default, returning to the
+    semantics of 3.7 and earlier, since it seems immature and causes far too
+    many problems with existing setups. See README.Debian for details
+    (closes: #237021).
 
  -- Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>  Mon,  8 Mar 2004 14:38:54 +0000