X11 forwarding with IPv6 disabled

[Jakub Jelen]

On 03/31/2017 04:34 AM, L. A. Walsh wrote:
> Jakub Jelen wrote:
>> Hello all,
>> one more (ever-returning) bug [1] reported recently caught my eye. The
>> problem is that disabling IPv6 in kernel leads to OpenSSH failing to
>> bind localhost IPv6 address and after the fix for CVE-2008-1483 [2]
>> leads to the whole X11 forwarding fail.
> ---
>    I can see the user-friendliness issue being possibly a
> good thing, but have some questions that might
> support current behavior (as you describe):
>
>    1) Why would openssh be configured to try IPV6 on a system
> where it doesn't exist?  Or -- wouldn't it be an error to
> try to configure a transport that doesn't exist on that system?
> (why not just fix the global defaults?)

Probably because enabling both of stacks is a default configuration of 
all standard OSes these days.

>    3) I'm not sure that expecting an application (like openssh
> or others), upon failing some random proto's open, should
> fall back to IPv4.  Should IPv4 always be expected to be "the"
> fallback if any other proto fails?

It is not about random proto and fallback to IPv4. It is more about 
handling common use case in a fail-proof way. The proposed solution 
would work also the other way round in case IPv4 is not enabled/configured.

>    Maybe I'm wondering how a non-existent protocol should be
> dealt with and whether or not any such non-existent proto should
> fall back to "something" and if that something should be ipv4?

This is pretty common practice in all the other cases (connecting from 
ssh client is handled correctly) and in all the other tools (browsers, 
...) so I don't see a reason why it should not be handled in the X11 
forwarding initialization code.

Regards,
-- 
Jakub Jelen
Software Engineer
Security Technologies
Red Hat