Re: Device browser, mounting, and other root tasks in KFM

I think offering a password for move, copy, delete and other similar commands 
isn't just a good idea, but a necessary idea.  I don't want to have to do a 
bunch of stuff just to copy a wallpaper into /usr/share/wallpapers.
If somebody wanted to be "break in" by trying passwords they could just try to 
run "kdesu."  I don't see why it would be a problem to offer a password box 
if you tried to copy an image to /usr/share/wallpapers.  Now, I  know 
fanatics would come up with some crap like "people are stupid and shouldn't 
be offered root access."  But if people are stupid, then we *really* need an 
easy way to do this kind of stuff.

But for the security conscious, I would just recommend a limit.  For example, 
don't allow more than X incorrect attempts.  After that you don't offer the 
password anymore, but just say "access denied" for like 5 minutes or so with 
some instructions on how to reset the clock--this is necessary as I have seen 
as my experience in Technical Support.

I have actually dreamed of this idea for over a year.  I am waiting till I 
graduate to try to code this type of stuff myself because KDE really sucks 
when it comes to handling permissions & administrative stuff(except in the 
Control Center).  I think somebody should submit a wish list.  This idea 
would be really awesome with the "remember password" thing. However, there 
are two implementations I had thought about.  One is, that you are in essence 
running "kdesu cp X X" after dragging a file.  The other option is to have 
the whole view get root access.  Something like the "Administrator Mode" used 
in the Control Center.  This would need some obvious graphical indications 
that it was root(perhaps a yellow bar along the side like in KMail that said 
"Full Administrative Priviledges"  or some kind of warning logo in the 
background of the window.

Yes?

Henry


On Wednesday 06 November 2002 03:33 pm, Tim Jansen wrote:
> On Wednesday 06 November 2002 21:13, Eric Ellsworth wrote:
> > for the duration of the action.  The functionaliy could be restricted to
> > a set of users by a KDE-wide mechanism.  Is this worth it, or do people
> > just mount once and go?
>
> I don't see why a user would want to set a special location for a hard
> disk. Unless, of course, you are setting up your system, but then the
> distribution's setup tools should be more appropriate.
>
> IMHO a view like that in Windows, that displays all devices, would be a
> better idea (but maybe only for removable storage). It would be nice if I
> could see all the Firewire/USB harddisks, digicams, MP3 players, flash
> cards and USB memory sticks that are currently connected to the system.
>
> >   2) Creating files and directories in restricted directories
> > of being root. Would it be worth adding features to prompt you for the
> > appropriate password when you go to manage files where you don't have
> > adequate permission?  Again, this would need to be restricted to some
> > group of users, but it might be really useful.
>
> Hmmm... interesting question. Should restricted actions be offered to the
> user (and he then be prompted for a password), or should they be hidden.
> Maybe it would be a good idea to offer logging in as root to a certain
> group of users, for example users in the 'trusted' group.
>
> bye...