Re: [Tails-dev] Shared screen locking solution for live dist…

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Author: sajolida
Date:  
To: Ed Dixon, tails-dev >> The Tails public development discussion list
Subject: Re: [Tails-dev] Shared screen locking solution for live distributions in Debian
Ed Dixon:
> Hi,


Hi, which project are you from?

> I have been using the xtrlock package which allows the screen to still be
> viewed while locked to good effect in classroom situations. It takes the
> current users password by default. I may be missing something here but as
> far as I am aware all current Debian screen locking mechanisms fill this
> need, if installed. I personally would not want a second set of credentials
> adding a potential vector attached to the user account just to have a
> separate password for the screen lock. Can you explain more the need for
> this?


In the case of live distributions most of the time there is no user
password by default. So if we want to use a password to lock the screen
we need to ask for a password at some point.

I'd like to avoid introducing yet another password if there is one
already (like in the case of Jondo, and sometimes Tails) but otherwise
we need at least one.

Does that make sense?

Note that in the case of Tails, you can configure an administration
password at boot time:
https://tails.boum.org/doc/first_steps/startup_options/administration_password.
I'd like to consider reusing this for screen locking if it is set (and
only ask for a screen locking password if there is none), unless someone
has security concerns about this.

--
sajolida