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When do any of those programs ask you for your password? I've never had any of them ask for my Unix password, ever. Is that just a macOS thing with self-updater

by pxc 4y ago

When do any of those programs ask you for your password? I've never had any of them ask for my Unix password, ever. Is that just a macOS thing with self-updaters?

remram 4y ago
I'm using Ubuntu/KDE/Plasma. "Discover" is the GUI app that prompts you to install system updates, and will ask for your password when you do (to run apt/dpkg as root). Discord doesn't directly ask for my password, it downloads a .deb from somewhere and opens it, and I get prompted for my password then. Not much different IMHO.
- still_grokking 4y ago
  I'm using Debian(Testing)/KDE/Plasma. (What was the point here?) I don't have any "Discover" installed as it's not needed for anything. There's aptitude… Regarding Discord: Discord is a virus. I try to avoid it. (And since you can't register without getting naked and showing the virus your telephone number it's not difficult to avoid ;-)).
  - nxpnsv 4y ago
    I don't think I ever gave discord a phone number...
    - still_grokking 4y ago
      That just means you're fully transparent to them. (Likely they have linked other accounts / IIP data behind the scenes; using it form a phone will have that effect obviously). It's almost impossible to register an anonymous account there. Even if you find a throw-away SMS number that works to register (which is hard enough) a few hours later they will block that account again and require a fresh number to unlock. I've given up even trying to register there; but plan to fill out some GDPR complains soon. Thanks for reminding me to do so…
      - zamadatix 4y ago
        More likely it just means they have an old account from when they weren’t as hung ho about it all and now they don’t delete it on a whim because it’s longstanding without issue. Same thing with mine, beyond it’s desperate for that phone number for things lately.
- franga2000 4y ago
  Those are poklit popups, similar to UAC on Windows. The program doesn't get your password, but depending on what kind of access it requested, it could give it root access. If implemented correctly, the popup should say "wants to install a package" or "wants to mount drive X", which runs a predefined action on behalf of the app and doesn't actually give it any elevated permissions. Of course, like UAC, an app could just make its own prompt that looks like the real deal and steal the password, but that seems to be an unsolved problem on every platform.

by pxc 4y ago

When do any of those programs ask you for your password? I've never had any of them ask for my Unix password, ever. Is that just a macOS thing with self-updaters?

remram 4y ago

I'm using Ubuntu/KDE/Plasma. "Discover" is the GUI app that prompts you to install system updates, and will ask for your password when you do (to run apt/dpkg as root). Discord doesn't directly ask for my password, it downloads a .deb from somewhere and opens it, and I get prompted for my password then. Not much different IMHO.

still_grokking 4y ago
I'm using Debian(Testing)/KDE/Plasma. (What was the point here?) I don't have any "Discover" installed as it's not needed for anything. There's aptitude… Regarding Discord: Discord is a virus. I try to avoid it. (And since you can't register without getting naked and showing the virus your telephone number it's not difficult to avoid ;-)).
- nxpnsv 4y ago
  I don't think I ever gave discord a phone number...
  - still_grokking 4y ago
    That just means you're fully transparent to them. (Likely they have linked other accounts / IIP data behind the scenes; using it form a phone will have that effect obviously). It's almost impossible to register an anonymous account there. Even if you find a throw-away SMS number that works to register (which is hard enough) a few hours later they will block that account again and require a fresh number to unlock. I've given up even trying to register there; but plan to fill out some GDPR complains soon. Thanks for reminding me to do so…
    - zamadatix 4y ago
      More likely it just means they have an old account from when they weren’t as hung ho about it all and now they don’t delete it on a whim because it’s longstanding without issue. Same thing with mine, beyond it’s desperate for that phone number for things lately.
franga2000 4y ago
Those are poklit popups, similar to UAC on Windows. The program doesn't get your password, but depending on what kind of access it requested, it could give it root access. If implemented correctly, the popup should say "wants to install a package" or "wants to mount drive X", which runs a predefined action on behalf of the app and doesn't actually give it any elevated permissions. Of course, like UAC, an app could just make its own prompt that looks like the real deal and steal the password, but that seems to be an unsolved problem on every platform.