3 ms·

Is that something Linux needs? I don’t really understand the benefit of it.

by dangus 10mo ago

mikkupikku 10mo ago
It made a lot more sense in the bygone years of users casually downloading and running exe's to get more AIM "smilies", or putting in a floppy disk or CD and having the system autoexec whatever malware the last user of that disk had. It was the expected norm for everybody's computer to be an absolute mess. These days, things have gotten far more reasonable, and I think we can generally expect a linux desktop user to only run software from trusted sources. In this context, such a feature makes much less sense.
ethbr1 10mo ago
The more powerful form is the UAC full privilege escalation dance that Win 7+(?) does, which is a surprisingly elegant UX solution. 1. Snapshot the desktop 2. Switch to a separate secure UI session 3. Display the snapshot in the background, greyed out, with the UAC prompt running in the current session and topmost It avoids any chance of a user-space program faking or interacting with a UAC window. Clever way of dealing with the train wreck of legacy Windows user/program permissioning.
- thewebguyd 10mo ago
  One of the things Windows did right, IMO. I hate that elevation prompts on macOS and most linux desktops are indistinguishable from any other window. It's not just visual either. The secure desktop is in protected memory, and no other process can access it. Only NTAUTHORITY\System can initiate showing it and interact with it any way, no other process can. You can also configure it to require you to press CTRL+ALT+DEL on the UAC prompt to be able to interact with it and enter credentials as another safeguard against spoofing. I'm not even sure if Wayland supports doing something like that.
- opello 10mo ago
  My only experience with non-UAC endpoint privilege management was BeyondTrust and it seemed to try to do what UAC did but with a worse user experience. It looks like the Intune EPM offering also doesn't present as clear a delineation as UAC, which seems like a missed opportunity.
- lawlessone 10mo ago
  >Display the snapshot in the background, greyed out, Is there an offset. I could have sworn things always seemed offset to the side a little.
- yencabulator 10mo ago
  How can I tell that dialog is not just a regular fullscreen program? Even Zoom gets to record the desktop regularly. It sounds like yet another violation of the Line of Death principle (in context of OS, not browser). https://textslashplain.com/2017/01/14/the-line-of-death/ https://textslashplain.com/2017/01/14/the-line-of-death/
IshKebab 10mo ago
It's useful for shared spaces like schools, universities and internet cafes. The point is that without it you can display a fake login screen and gather people's passwords. I actually wrote a fake version of RMNet login when I was in school (before Windows added ctrl-alt-del to login). https://www.rmusergroup.net/rm-networks/ https://www.rmusergroup.net/rm-networks/ I got the teacher's password and then got scared and deleted all trace of it.

Is that something Linux needs? I don’t really understand the benefit of it.

by dangus 10mo ago

Is that something Linux needs? I don’t really understand the benefit of it.

It made a lot more sense in the bygone years of users casually downloading and running exe's to get more AIM "smilies", or putting in a floppy disk or CD and having the system autoexec whatever malware the last user of that disk had. It was the expected norm for everybody's computer to be an absolute mess. These days, things have gotten far more reasonable, and I think we can generally expect a linux desktop user to only run software from trusted sources. In this context, such a feature makes much less sense.

ethbr1 10mo ago

The more powerful form is the UAC full privilege escalation dance that Win 7+(?) does, which is a surprisingly elegant UX solution. 1. Snapshot the desktop 2. Switch to a separate secure UI session 3. Display the snapshot in the background, greyed out, with the UAC prompt running in the current session and topmost It avoids any chance of a user-space program faking or interacting with a UAC window. Clever way of dealing with the train wreck of legacy Windows user/program permissioning.

thewebguyd 10mo ago
One of the things Windows did right, IMO. I hate that elevation prompts on macOS and most linux desktops are indistinguishable from any other window. It's not just visual either. The secure desktop is in protected memory, and no other process can access it. Only NTAUTHORITY\System can initiate showing it and interact with it any way, no other process can. You can also configure it to require you to press CTRL+ALT+DEL on the UAC prompt to be able to interact with it and enter credentials as another safeguard against spoofing. I'm not even sure if Wayland supports doing something like that.
opello 10mo ago
My only experience with non-UAC endpoint privilege management was BeyondTrust and it seemed to try to do what UAC did but with a worse user experience. It looks like the Intune EPM offering also doesn't present as clear a delineation as UAC, which seems like a missed opportunity.
lawlessone 10mo ago
>Display the snapshot in the background, greyed out, Is there an offset. I could have sworn things always seemed offset to the side a little.
yencabulator 10mo ago
How can I tell that dialog is not just a regular fullscreen program? Even Zoom gets to record the desktop regularly. It sounds like yet another violation of the Line of Death principle (in context of OS, not browser). https://textslashplain.com/2017/01/14/the-line-of-death/ https://textslashplain.com/2017/01/14/the-line-of-death/

IshKebab 10mo ago

It's useful for shared spaces like schools, universities and internet cafes. The point is that without it you can display a fake login screen and gather people's passwords. I actually wrote a fake version of RMNet login when I was in school (before Windows added ctrl-alt-del to login). https://www.rmusergroup.net/rm-networks/ https://www.rmusergroup.net/rm-networks/ I got the teacher's password and then got scared and deleted all trace of it.