Linux viewer login creates over abundance of 'account security' emails due to ever-changing 'volume serial' calculations

Description

The SL viewer, Firestorm viewer, and probably most other TPVs use a rather fragile algorithm when generating the 'volume serial' identifier for a viewer session. The 'volume serial' is prone to change on each boot if any sort of dynamic filesystem is present. The reason why 'volume serial' is unstable is that the viewer picks one of the filesystems under /dev/disk/by-uuid/ , computes a hash of that filesystem's UUID. If filesystems are added or removed (this would include things like removable drives or dynamic RAM-based filesystems), then the volume serial can change, causing an 'Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.' email to be sent.

One example reported by Vala.Vella is that having a system with zram enabled causes a /dev/zram0 filesystem to appear in the filesystem list. The UUID for the zram filesystem changes on each boot, which they viewer may choose in its/dev/disk/by-uuid/ calculation and cause a 'Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.' email to be sent.

Steps to reproduce

1. Look at the list of filesystems on your linux machine:

$ ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Jan 13 08:09 abb70f73-1892-4a63-bd2d-0b2f22098c7f -> ../../sda1

2. Manually create an entry in /dev/disk/by-uuid/ with a UUID label that is (1) at least as many characters as the other UUIDs and (2) appears alphabetically last in the list. Note that this is a hack, but simulates somebody mounting a new filesystem somewhere on the system (probably a USB thumb drive, zram, etc.)

$ sudo touch /dev/disk/by-uuid/fff70f73-1892-4a63-bd2d-0b2f22098c7f

3. Launch the SL viewer, and login with an email-verified account that had previously logged in on the same machine. Note if any account security emails appear.

Actual results:
In (3), the viewer sends a brand new 'volume serial' value, which has never been used before for that agent. As a result, a 'login from new machine' email is sent.

Expected results:

• The 'volume serial' identifier sent by the viewer shouldn't be affected by minor/dynamic filesystem changes
  • Suggestion: since the Windows viewer apparently uses the C: volume identifier for its volume serial calculation, perhaps the linux viewer should use the UUID of the filesystem mounted to /
• When following the repro steps, no account security email should be sent - the viewer should send the same 'volume serial' as before, since the machine is basically the same as previous login sessions.

Environment

Linux box 6.18.5-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sun, 11 Jan 2026 17:10:53 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Second Life Project Lua Editor 7.2.3.20968673514 (64bit)Release Notes

You are at 221.1, 94.8, 23.7 in By Design located at simhost-01508ec9248c7690f.agni
SLURL: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/By%20Design/221/95/24
(global coordinates 261597.0, 246879.0, 23.7)
Second Life Preflight 2025-12-05.19978939568
Release Notes

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 16-Core Processor (5756.45 MHz)
Memory: 190809 MB
OS Version: Linux 6.18.5-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sun, 11 Jan 2026 17:10:53 +0000 x86_64
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080/PCIe/SSE2

OpenGL Version: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 590.48.01

Window size: 1321x911
Font Size Adjustment: 96pt
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LOD factor: 1.5
Render quality: 4
Texture memory: 8192MB
Disk cache: Max size 2150.4 MB (37.7% used)

J2C Decoder Version: KDU v8.4.1
Audio Driver Version: OpenAL, version 1.1 ALSOFT 1.24.2 / OpenAL Community / OpenAL Soft: OpenAL Soft
Dullahan: 1.26.0.202510161627
  CEF: 139.0.40+g465474a+chromium-139.0.7258.139
  Chromium: 139.0.7258.139
LibVLC Version: 3.0.16
Voice Server Version: Secondlife WebRTC Gateway 

Packets Lost: 0/13734 (0.0%)
January 15 2026 12:03:47

Canny report

I've tried filing this as a 'support case', but Freckle Linden (who?) closed my ticket and told me to bring this issue here.

• Thank you for submitting your case. After investigation, it appears as though this issue may be a bug or error which would be best handled through our bug report system known as JIRA (http://jira.secondlife.com). While our Support team is always happy to help, there are certain technical issues which can only be addressed via a development or engineering investigation.

Something strange is happening with the 'account security' emails. I have several alt accounts, and I am seeing a large number of emails saying I've logged in to a new machine. Far more often than I am used to, and far more than seems reasonable. This increase in frequency seems to have started around October 17, 2025. I will focus on just two accounts for the purpose of this report, and I will so you can see the issue clearly.

Oct 17 - Of the accounts I logged in on October 17, I received 6 emails (one per user) stating that or accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Oct 19 - Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Oct 20 - Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Oct 22 - Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Nov 4 - Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Nov 6 - Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Nov 20 - Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Nov 23 - Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Dec 1 - Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Dec 1 - Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Dec 5 - Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Dec 9 - Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Dec 16 - Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Dec 17 - Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Dec 20 - Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Dec 20 - Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Dec 26 - Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Dec 28 - Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Dec 28 - Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Dec 29 - Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Dec 29 - Important: accessed Second Life from a new machine.

Now here's the thing. Aside from a couple of attempts to use the mobile viewer, I have been consistently using my desktop computer. This computer hasn't changed. My IP Address (both on our home LAN, and the household IP) hasn't changed! My MAC hasn't changed. My OS hasn't changed. I haven't done any major computer rebuilds or OS reinstalls that would result in notable hardware or software changes. I also haven't logged these accounts in with any other computers. I feel it's important to note that I didn't attempt to log into SL every single day. is my 'daily driver' account.

These emails are coming in FAR too frequently to be explained by those brief mobile app attempts. The app has not been launched in days, and the device it is installed on, has been powered off and rebooted in the time since.

To confuse things more, someone else, in the same household (on the same external IP!) has been logging in from a different computer, and has received NONE of these alert messages.. it's JUST ME and my accounts!

I've enabled Multi-factor authentication on both accounts, I've checked my transaction history, both https://accounts.secondlife.com/transaction_history and https://secondlife.com/my/lindex/history.php and I have seen no transactions that would indicate someone is using my accounts without my permission.

I only see these notification emails after I log in to my own accounts.. I've never seen them appear any other time.. and no one to my knowledge has access to my email.

I do not believe that this is an unauthorized account access issue.

These messages are important.. it's important for me to know if my account is logged in without my consent. I value these messages. But at this point, the system is crying wolf.. and it's getting to the point where I've considered making an email filter to automatically delete them before I see them.. because they are only creating false scares and annoying me.

Something's wrong with the system here.. whether it's on your end or mine, I can't tell. What I do know is that these emails aren't useful in their current form.. and they should be! They need to be!

https://secondlife.canny.io/admin/board/bug-reports/p/over-abundance-of-account-security-emails

Start by tracing the Linux volume-serial calculation in the viewer and reproduce the change described under /dev/disk/by-uuid/ with a dynamic filesystem such as zram. Determine how the identifier is selected, then verify that adding or changing unrelated filesystems no longer produces a new identifier or account-security email.