clock riddle

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Tue, 2009-02-24 at 11:38 -0700, Michal Jaegermann wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 10:48:12AM -0430, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> > On Mon, 2009-02-23 at 15:25 -0700, Michal Jaegermann wrote:
> > > [...]> The KDE
> > > > clock applet doesn't allow you to change the time (just the timezone)
> > > 
> > > If that is a global change, and not how time is displayed on this
> > > specific desktop, that this is bad enough.
> > 
> > It isn't. It affects the displayed time on the desktop. The system's
> > view of the timezone does not change.
> 
> Yes, I was quite sure this only this could and should happen if you
> will switch timezone in clockapplet (a very poor cousin of that
> would a modification only for a time displayed by _that_ clock).  I
> was quite surprised when I found out that /etc/localtime changed.

Once again, under KDE it doesn't. I now understand your point, that PK
is wrong and should be fixed. What confused me is that you started this
whole thread without saying that the vulnerability manifests through
Gnome.

> > AFAIK you can only change the system timezone via the root password.
> 
> Not quite if you can start on your system a Gnome desktop session
> and you have 'gnome-panel' package installed.  That provides
> /usr/libexec/clock-applet.  Log out from a KDE session, change a
> session type, login into a Gnome desktop, proceed like above ...

See above.

poc