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I once lost focus of my terminal and typed in my root password into Stack Overflow (I prolly had too many whiskeys). Glad Stack Overflow didn't have a covert ke

I once lost focus of my terminal and typed in my root password into Stack Overflow (I prolly had too many whiskeys). Glad Stack Overflow didn't have a covert keylogger, and JavaScript was disabled so I got lucky. Protip: Always make sure the focus is on your terminal when typing in credentials to it, or any input box that holds sensitive info. I sometimes forget to focus Firefox's master password prompt too and end up typing my Firefox master passphrase into other apps!

travisporter 4y ago
I cannot begin to express my rage at windows changing focus when typing. Is there no way for it to not do this when receiving input? Feels like it should be an OS feature
- tailspin2019 4y ago
  macOS does this occasionally too, with pop ups sometimes appearing while I type (software update messages etc) Especially problematic if you happen to hit Enter for a line return and end up accepting the default selected button on the popup instead. I think there should be some OS-level heuristics-driven functionality to prevent or delay this sort of thing while the user is actually inputting data. And prevent any third party apps from overriding this unless consent is explicitly given (if the app really needs direct control over window focus) similar to how consent is required for apps to record the screen in macOS.
- julius 4y ago
  With OpenBox (linux window manager thing ... included in eg LXDE) there is a configuration option called "Focus new windows when they appear". You can uncheck that (have not tried it myself).
- pwg 4y ago
  This seems to be an artifact of OS's that also decide that "window on top must have keyboard focus" (i.e., MSWin is very bad in this regard). Because the pop-up dialog must be "on top" to be a pop-up, the OS's built in design of "window on top must have keyboard focus" results in the popup gaining keyboard focus, even if you are actively typing into another window at the same time. On my Linux system, I run Fvwm2, and because on X the decision to grant focus to a window lies with the window manager, I can control who gets focus via my Fvwm2 config. I have Fvwm2 set for focus follows mouse so unless a popup happens to appear, directly under where the mouse cursor happens to be at that moment, the popup can appear, and be "on top" and my keyboard focus is unchanged. I also have Fvwm2 configured so that a window gaining focus does not in any way change its order in the stack, so I can focus, and type, into a partially obscured window, without ever moving that window up/down from where it sits. An old version of OpenOffice (I think back when it was still called StarOffice) had decided at some point that if the mouse cursor so much as brushed across its window that it would pop itself to the top and take keyboard focus. That happened about two times, then I added a couple lines to my Fvwm2 config to take away StarOffice's ability to both take focus and to raise itself to the top, and it became a properly behaved program that stayed put until I told it specifically to move to the top. These kinds of irritants can be fixed, but only if the environment one uses gives one the ability to control these miss-behaviors.
- spockz 4y ago
  I seem to recall “do not steal focus” was a hard rule in the macOS human interaction guidelines. However, lately, macOS itself even steals focus and more and more apps steal focus as well. Most notably through authentication/authorisation dialogs. It is indeed, furiating.
- mdaniel 4y ago
  For sure, and doubly(?) bad when some system dialog pops up, with "Reboot now" or "Confirm, upgrade" selected, so the "enter" key for the command you were cheerfully typing now causes havoc /me gives Ubuntu the evil eye
  - sdflhasjd 4y ago
    The AWS VPN client does this when it connects. I'll open it up, click connect, then go back to my work while it churns away and establishes a connection. The number of times I've been in the middle of writing something and had the connection dialogue gleefully pop up to inform me that it's finally finished, only for me to hit return on what is now a focused "disconnect" button...
tailspin2019 4y ago
Related to this, I’m constantly paranoid about entering confidential data into communications apps. Once having typed a password into Teams, I decided to create a small Keyboard Maestro automation (on Mac) to automatically remove focus from apps like Teams after a short period of inactivity. It’s not intrusive but just ensures that the current focus is not left in the chat message box when I’m not actually typing chat messages. Additionally I’ve taken to having all comms related apps on a separate machine to my main development machine. This was ostensibly for reasons of reducing distractions, but hugely helps reduce the risk of this sort of accidental input as well.
XCSme 4y ago
Do you think that if they had loggers or if you submitted your search query, anyone could realistically use that information in any way?
- DerekBickerton 4y ago
  Well they could SSH into my box if they had my root password, so it's a plausible threat.
aendruk 4y ago
I once accidentally changed my AIM screen name to my password. Apparently all it took was clicking on your name in the buddy list.

travisporter 4y ago

I cannot begin to express my rage at windows changing focus when typing. Is there no way for it to not do this when receiving input? Feels like it should be an OS feature

tailspin2019 4y ago
macOS does this occasionally too, with pop ups sometimes appearing while I type (software update messages etc) Especially problematic if you happen to hit Enter for a line return and end up accepting the default selected button on the popup instead. I think there should be some OS-level heuristics-driven functionality to prevent or delay this sort of thing while the user is actually inputting data. And prevent any third party apps from overriding this unless consent is explicitly given (if the app really needs direct control over window focus) similar to how consent is required for apps to record the screen in macOS.
julius 4y ago
With OpenBox (linux window manager thing ... included in eg LXDE) there is a configuration option called "Focus new windows when they appear". You can uncheck that (have not tried it myself).
pwg 4y ago
This seems to be an artifact of OS's that also decide that "window on top must have keyboard focus" (i.e., MSWin is very bad in this regard). Because the pop-up dialog must be "on top" to be a pop-up, the OS's built in design of "window on top must have keyboard focus" results in the popup gaining keyboard focus, even if you are actively typing into another window at the same time. On my Linux system, I run Fvwm2, and because on X the decision to grant focus to a window lies with the window manager, I can control who gets focus via my Fvwm2 config. I have Fvwm2 set for focus follows mouse so unless a popup happens to appear, directly under where the mouse cursor happens to be at that moment, the popup can appear, and be "on top" and my keyboard focus is unchanged. I also have Fvwm2 configured so that a window gaining focus does not in any way change its order in the stack, so I can focus, and type, into a partially obscured window, without ever moving that window up/down from where it sits. An old version of OpenOffice (I think back when it was still called StarOffice) had decided at some point that if the mouse cursor so much as brushed across its window that it would pop itself to the top and take keyboard focus. That happened about two times, then I added a couple lines to my Fvwm2 config to take away StarOffice's ability to both take focus and to raise itself to the top, and it became a properly behaved program that stayed put until I told it specifically to move to the top. These kinds of irritants can be fixed, but only if the environment one uses gives one the ability to control these miss-behaviors.
spockz 4y ago
I seem to recall “do not steal focus” was a hard rule in the macOS human interaction guidelines. However, lately, macOS itself even steals focus and more and more apps steal focus as well. Most notably through authentication/authorisation dialogs. It is indeed, furiating.
mdaniel 4y ago
For sure, and doubly(?) bad when some system dialog pops up, with "Reboot now" or "Confirm, upgrade" selected, so the "enter" key for the command you were cheerfully typing now causes havoc /me gives Ubuntu the evil eye
- sdflhasjd 4y ago
  The AWS VPN client does this when it connects. I'll open it up, click connect, then go back to my work while it churns away and establishes a connection. The number of times I've been in the middle of writing something and had the connection dialogue gleefully pop up to inform me that it's finally finished, only for me to hit return on what is now a focused "disconnect" button...

tailspin2019 4y ago

Related to this, I’m constantly paranoid about entering confidential data into communications apps. Once having typed a password into Teams, I decided to create a small Keyboard Maestro automation (on Mac) to automatically remove focus from apps like Teams after a short period of inactivity. It’s not intrusive but just ensures that the current focus is not left in the chat message box when I’m not actually typing chat messages. Additionally I’ve taken to having all comms related apps on a separate machine to my main development machine. This was ostensibly for reasons of reducing distractions, but hugely helps reduce the risk of this sort of accidental input as well.

XCSme 4y ago

Do you think that if they had loggers or if you submitted your search query, anyone could realistically use that information in any way?

DerekBickerton 4y ago
Well they could SSH into my box if they had my root password, so it's a plausible threat.

aendruk 4y ago

I once accidentally changed my AIM screen name to my password. Apparently all it took was clicking on your name in the buddy list.