Re: making FAM a required dependency

[Chipzz <chipzz ULYSSIS Org>]

On 16 Oct 2002, Ted Gould wrote:

> From: Ted Gould <ted gould cx>
> Subject: Re: making FAM a required dependency
>
> > 	In addition to the registration bits, I added a 'setPassword',
> > 'getPassword' method pair - and a 'doSomething' on the client - so
> > people can see how it goes.
>
> Disclaimer: I have no idea what I'm talking about here...
>
> I was reading my local LUG list and we were talking with a guy about
> switching his office from Windows to Linux (which it looks like he might
> do).  One thing that he mentioned that he didn't like is that when he
> mounted a remote file system in user space, he had to re-enter his
> password.  He really felt like the system should be remembering it for
> him and trying that password first.
>
> I have mixed feelings on this.  While I can see the usability issues, I
> don't know if I want the password on my local machine being tried on
> various outside sources before I am prompted for a password (seems kinda
> scary).  But it seems like if you could restrict the IPs or something of
> that nature (so it is only the local net) it would be a useful feature.
>
> Is there some way that GnomeVFS could get the current password from PAM
> or something like that?  Perhaps have policies of when to try that

I have had a similar problem a while back. The short answer is no.
AFAICT, you CAN remember the password in pam, but only within the same
program (and within the same section, although there IS a way around
that last limitation).
Also, pam works on a per-program (service) basis, but we could work
around that with a helper program.

Apart from the above facts, I think there may be security-issues invol-
ved.

> first?  Am I completely insane?  (go ahead and answer that one first)
>
> 		Thanks,
> 			Ted

Kind regards,

Chipzz AKA
Jan Van Buggenhout
-- 

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                           Chipzz ULYSSIS Org
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