Re: Why gnome-shell disables the extensions when the screen is idle?

[Jay Strict <jay strict posteo de>]

On 17.03.2016 16:04, Emmanuele Bassi wrote:
> > But the worst is that it was a futile effort because when the screen is
> > idle, gnome-shell disables the extensions. Why?
>
> It's a security measure.

Hmm, is that so?


> Since an extension can do whatever it wants with the UI, it can also
> read the user's credentials from the session unlock screen;
> alternatively, it could take over the whole thing, and impersonate the
> user.

Since an extension can do whatever it wants with the UI, it can also
simulate a fake session unlock screen and read the user's credentials
from there;
alternatively, it does not need to take over the user's session, because
it already runs as the user's UID and can spawn new processes as the
user with GLib.spawn_async().


There may be sound arguments for disabling extensions on session lock,
but I doubt that those reasons are security. But maybe I am missing a
point here?


Kind regards,
Jay