Development/Tutorials/PolicyKit/Helper HowTo

Development/Tutorials/PolicyKit/Introduction

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Using the caller-helper model to perform actions as root

Tutorial Series	PolicyKit Tutorial
Previous	Development/Tutorials/PolicyKit/Introduction
What's Next	None reading=None
Further Reading	n/a

Before you start

Applications running under root privileges has always been a major problem in Linux, and PolicyKit was created exactly to make the whole process easier and more secure. Though, running applications as root, even if small and controlled, can be still a major issue. So there are a few things you should take in account that will help you minimize possible issues:

• [b]Include in the helper just the strictly needed code.[/b] The fact itself that is a helper delegated to run just small parts of code implies that only the few lines of code you need to run as root should go in
• [b]Link against and use the minor number of libraries possible[/b]. The helper itself requires only QtCore and QtDBus. In particular, try not to use KDELibs as possible, as they were not designed to be used as root.