The user gets to decide whether she wants to run kate as root. Please developers, do not presume that a Slackware user is dumb. diff -uar kate-19.04.1.orig/kate/main.cpp kate-19.04.1/kate/main.cpp --- kate-19.04.1.orig/kate/main.cpp 2019-05-02 12:44:53.000000000 +0200 +++ kate-19.04.1/kate/main.cpp 2019-05-08 21:26:07.196338144 +0200 @@ -59,14 +59,12 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv) { #ifndef Q_OS_WIN - // Prohibit using sudo or kdesu (but allow using the root user directly) + // Warn using sudo or kdesu (but allow using the root user directly) if (getuid() == 0) { if (!qEnvironmentVariableIsEmpty("SUDO_USER")) { - std::cout << "Executing Kate with sudo is not possible due to unfixable security vulnerabilities." << std::endl; - return EXIT_FAILURE; + std::cout << "Executing Kate with sudo is UNSAFE due to unfixable security vulnerabilities." << std::endl; } else if (!qEnvironmentVariableIsEmpty("KDESU_USER")) { - std::cout << "Executing Kate with kdesu is not possible due to unfixable security vulnerabilities." << std::endl; - return EXIT_FAILURE; + std::cout << "Executing Kate with kdesu is UNSAFE due to unfixable security vulnerabilities." << std::endl; } } #endif diff -uar kate-19.04.1.orig/kwrite/main.cpp kate-19.04.1/kwrite/main.cpp --- kate-19.04.1.orig/kwrite/main.cpp 2019-05-02 12:44:53.000000000 +0200 +++ kate-19.04.1/kwrite/main.cpp 2019-05-08 21:27:52.034134472 +0200 @@ -51,14 +51,12 @@ extern "C" Q_DECL_EXPORT int main(int argc, char **argv) { #ifndef Q_OS_WIN - // Prohibit using sudo or kdesu (but allow using the root user directly) + // Warn using sudo or kdesu (but allow using the root user directly) if (getuid() == 0) { if (!qEnvironmentVariableIsEmpty("SUDO_USER")) { - std::cout << "Executing KWrite with sudo is not possible due to unfixable security vulnerabilities." << std::endl; - return EXIT_FAILURE; + std::cout << "Executing KWrite with sudo is UNSAFE due to unfixable security vulnerabilities." << std::endl; } else if (!qEnvironmentVariableIsEmpty("KDESU_USER")) { - std::cout << "Executing KWrite with kdesu is not possible due to unfixable security vulnerabilities." << std::endl; - return EXIT_FAILURE; + std::cout << "Executing KWrite with kdesu is UNSAFE due to unfixable security vulnerabilities." << std::endl; } } #endif