[806] in SIPB bug reports
Xscreensaver bug/feature
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Mon Dec 18 08:36:21 1989
Date: Mon, 18 Dec 89 08:36:12 -0500
From: Jonathan I. Kamens <jik@PIT-MANAGER.MIT.EDU>
To: lwvanels@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Cc: bug-sipb@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: lwvanels@ATHENA.MIT.EDU's message of Fri, 15 Dec 89 12:39:02 -0500 <8912151739.AA14881@ALDOUS-HUXLEY.MIT.EDU>
From: lwvanels@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 89 12:39:02 -0500
If you run xscreensaver, change your password via passwd, and then lock the
screen, the screensaver will use your old password to lock/unlock the
screen.
This is not considered a bug with xscreensaver; if anything, it is a
bug with the passwd program, although that, too, is doubtful.
When you log into a workstation, the /bin/login program (or the
xlogin program, if you log in on the X display) puts a passwd entry
for you in the /etc/passwd file if one does not already exist, and
includes in that entry your encrypted password.
However, that password is not used for any off-workstation
authentication -- kerberos is used for that. In fact, the password
could not be there at all and very few programs would be affected
adversely. Xscreensaver, for example, prompts for a password when you
lock the screen if it can't find one in the /etc/passwd file, and you
haven't specified one in your .Xresources or on the command line.
When you use passwd to change your password, it changes your
kerberos password, but does not affect the /etc/passwd file.
The only way I could possibly fix this problem would be for
xscreensaver to use kerberos, and I am not willing to do that, for
various reasons (which I will explain in private E-mail if you want).
jik
