I have determined it all boils down to the permissions that the Samsung installer apparently sets on xsane - it sets the SUID to root, apparently because the smfp module it adds to /etc/sane.d/dll.conf requires root permissions to load. However, if you do not have a Samsung multifunction printer (and perhaps even if you do), you do not need this module. So commenting out the smfp in the file, then sudo chmod -s /usr/share/xsane eliminates the problem.
While this still bugs me, I don't know that it still qualifies as a bug. -- xsane runs as root without password https://launchpad.net/bugs/76184 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
