[Bug 1590994] Re: [Regression] crash in scan_dmi_sysfs when running as non-root

[dann frazier]

This impacts upstream; I've submitted a bug (stuck in moderation) and a
pull request. I'll give upstream a day or so to digest to see if we can
incorporate an upstream-accepted fix.

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Title:
  [Regression] crash in scan_dmi_sysfs when running as non-root

Status in lshw package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in lshw source package in Xenial:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  [Impact]
  lshw crashes when run as non-root:

  Though it does warn before crashing that it should be run as super-
  user, it should fail gracefully - not abort and dump core. A number of
  users have been hitting this since the regression has been introduced:

  https://errors.ubuntu.com/problem/3ef7206b4102c14c8741b44fde30b21b4a571bbe

  [Test Case]
  ubuntu at lshw:~$ lshw
  WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
  terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::bad_alloc'
    what():  std::bad_alloc
  Aborted (core dumped)

  [Regression Risk]
  The fix I've proposed[*] only comes into play when lshw is about to crash, so regression risk should be minimal.

  [*] https://github.com/lyonel/lshw/pull/14

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