Request for comments on security of authentication/authorisation UIs

[Dodier-Lazaro, Steve]

Hello,

Currently on the Wayland ML, a bunch of devs are discussing security issues [0,1] and the need to restrict userland processes' privileges to e.g., take screenshots, act as virtual keyboards or read keyboard events for other apps, etc (basically introducing privileged interfaces that require explicit user authorisation). We've also been discussing how the introduction of Wayland allows for redesigning and securing authentication and authorisation UIs.

This has led me to question the way authorisation and authentication are currently done, and to write a couple of proposed requirements for both tasks. I'd be very keen on hearing the opinions of polkit developers on a blog post I've written [2], that focuses a lot on the infrastructure needs (both in Wayland and desktop environments), that I think has a lot of relevance to polkit. I'd also like to debate UX aspects of authorisation (which are less detailled in that blog) and see if the polkit project has any interest in advocating implementation guidelines on authorisation/authentication agents, based on usable security research. I'm not sure if this ML is the best place for such a discussion but if it is, I'd be very happy to hear about your opinions.

Thanks,

[0] http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/wayland-devel/2014-February/013359.html
[1] http://mupuf.org/blog/2014/02/19/wayland-compositors-why-and-how-to-handle/
[2] http://mupuf.org/blog/2014/03/18/managing-auth-ui-in-linux/
--
Steve Dodier-Lazaro
PhD student in Information Security
University College London
Dept. of Computer Science
Malet Place Engineering, 6.07
Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT
OpenPGP : 1B6B1670
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