Kids find a security flaw in Linux Mint by mashing keys

Post by ballenf » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 3:46 PM UTC

dd_roger wrote: post #145

thomasmg wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My kid (3 years old then) found an issue in the MacOS lock screen as well. It didn't result in a bypass, but a "Spinning Beach Ball of Death". I could then reproduce it and even filed an issue, but only I could reproduce (and one funny response was: "Why would you want a screen shot of the screen sleeping? It would just be black." - well tell that to my kid): https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7598463

> https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7598463 Wow every new person who joins that thread misses the point more than the previous one. This was painful to read.

Post by smnrchrds » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 3:46 PM UTC

dr_cypher wrote: post #196

GlitchMr wrote: post #183

I find interesting that GNOME Screensaver's security depends on it to not crash. Meanwhile, in KDE the lock screen is managed by KDE Session Management Server which ensures that lock screen cannot be bypassed by simply crashing its process. The way it works is follows: ksmserver draws a black rectangle over everything and spawns kscreenlocker. If kscreenlocker crashes, the black rectangle is still here, and ksmserver…

jwz has a lot to say about complex graphical toolkits/desktop environments and their complex locking mechanisms. It's an interesting series of posts. If you are not running xscreensaver on Linux, then it is safe to assume that your screen does not lock. Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. Four times is Official GNOME Policy. https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/toolkits.html

Post by smnrchrds » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 3:49 PM UTC

GlitchMr wrote: post #201

dr_cypher wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

jwz has a lot to say about complex graphical toolkits/desktop environments and their complex locking mechanisms. It's an interesting series of posts. If you are not running xscreensaver on Linux, then it is safe to assume that your screen does not lock. Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. Four times is Official GNOME Policy. https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/toolkits.html

I would recommend not linking to jwz's website. Use web archive or something if you have to. jwz dislikes Hacker News and intentionally shows an NSFW image when Referer header shows Hacker News.

Post by masswerk » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 3:54 PM UTC

zwp wrote: post #28

radicalbyte wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original definition of "hacking" was "hacking code together". Move fast and break things. There are a lot of us OG and TNG hackers here. It's kind of the SV spirit. "Cracker" is the term used commonly - as in "crack the nut"; i.e. gain access to systems / break copy protection etc. Then you have the phone guys, the phreakers, whistling for free calls.

> original definition of "hacking" was "hacking code together" Hmm. Right spirit but not so much "hacking code together" going on at MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club in 1958. "a project undertaken or a product built not solely to fulfill some constructive goal but with some wild pleasure taken in mere involvement, was called a `hack'". (Steven Levy, "Hackers").

  HACK: 1) something done without constructive end;
        2) a project undertaken on bad self-advice;
        3) an entropy booster;
        4) to produce, or attempt to produce, a hack.

  HACKER: one who hacks, or makes them.

Post by viro » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 4:05 PM UTC