controlling/monitoring clients

I thought this list is a better venue for this discussion.

The security problem with having x11vnc launch in the chroot is that
the encrypted password file would also have to be in the chroot.
Since the chroot is nfs exported this is a very weak security model.
Hence, I wonder if it would be possible to launch x11vnc (as root) on
the client as a local app where the password file would reside in the
main OS filesystem, where it can be protected.

Any comments or ideas appreciated.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Robert Arkiletian <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 2:55 PM
Subject: Re: [Ltsp-discuss] Fl_TeacherTool 0.60 for K12LTSP 5EL (ltsp
4.x) released
To: [email protected]


On Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 12:02 AM, CyberOrg <[email protected]> wrote:
> In LTSP setup, the client's session is running on the server, so
> server is also a client, nothing required in the chroot :)

You are correct, italc does not require anything in the chroot  . So I
dug deeper into italc source. Turns out  Italc uses x11vnc also (the
italc client app IS basically x11vnc), except italc launches it on the
LTSP server and poles the X server (the client) over the network.
This produces much more network traffic than having it run on the
client itself in addition to the added load on the ltsp server.  The
x11vnc docs recommend against this.

http://www.karlrunge.com/x11vnc/#faq-noshm

However, the security model becomes more difficult when launching
x11vnc in the chroot (on the client).  I could implement the method
italc uses but I don't feel that it's the best solution.  Trying to
figure out a way to have the best of both worlds
(performance/security).  I'll let you know if I find a solution.


-- 
Robert Arkiletian
Eric Hamber Secondary, Vancouver, Canada
Fl_TeacherTool http://www3.telus.net/public/robark/Fl_TeacherTool/
C++ GUI tutorial http://www3.telus.net/public/robark/

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