Privacy (Zeitgeist) in System Settings needs password protection

[Nick]

Anyone could go into the Privacy feature in System Settings and undo every non-recorded folder, file type or application, or turn recording on when it was turned off, and thus see whatever the user was trying to hide. This is a feature that should have password protection to not only view what the settings are but also to change them.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: zeitgeist 0.8.99~alpha3-1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-18.29-generic 3.2.9
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-18-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.94.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Mar 27 13:49:16 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Beta amd64 (20120301)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_NZ:en
 TERM=xterm
 LANG=en_NZ.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: zeitgeist
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-03-12 (14 days ago)

[Nick (soapduk)]

Is Zeitgeist the correct application for this bug to be logged under or should it be 'Activity Log Manager'?

[Manish Sinha (मनीष सिन्हा) (manishsinha)]

When you remove the blacklist, then for that specific time when the blacklist was set, the events are not logged and the person cannot know what was done in that time period.

BTW all these logging and blacklisting is per user. It isn't system wide.

[Nick (soapduk)]

OK Thanks Manish.

I knew it was on a per user basis. But at least the events not logged
during that time are not revealed. The other risk however is if someone
turns off the logging without the user knowing then all events since that
point in time are now logged from that moment forwards. Not everyone uses
different accounts, especially when some video drivers cause fast user
switching to crash.

2012/4/3 Manish Sinha (मनीष सिन्हा <email address hidden>

> When you remove the blacklist, then for that specific time when the
> blacklist was set, the events are not logged and the person cannot know
> what was done in that time period.
>
> BTW all these logging and blacklisting is per user. It isn't system
> wide.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/965832
>
> Title:
> Privacy (Zeitgeist) in System Settings needs password protection
>
> Status in “zeitgeist” package in Ubuntu:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> Anyone could go into the Privacy feature in System Settings and undo
> every non-recorded folder, file type or application, or turn recording
> on when it was turned off, and thus see whatever the user was trying
> to hide. This is a feature that should have password protection to not
> only view what the settings are but also to change them.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
> Package: zeitgeist 0.8.99~alpha3-1
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-18.29-generic 3.2.9
> Uname: Linux 3.2.0-18-generic x86_64
> ApportVersion: 1.94.1-0ubuntu2
> Architecture: amd64
> Date: Tue Mar 27 13:49:16 2012
> InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Beta amd64
> (20120301)
> PackageArchitecture: all
> ProcEnviron:
> LANGUAGE=en_NZ:en
> TERM=xterm
> LANG=en_NZ.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> SourcePackage: zeitgeist
> UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-03-12 (14 days ago)
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/zeitgeist/+bug/965832/+subscriptions
>

[Siegfried Gevatter (rainct)]

I don't really see the point in this. If they want to know what you're doing, and they have access to their session, there's plenty of ways to get even more information (including keyloggers and all sorts of evil stuff). Having a password in the Settings dialog isn't going to help much (also, even if it was, they can still turn on logging by manually editing the configuration file).

[Nick (soapduk)]

OK, but this is assuming they know their way around the terminal commands.
Like you say, someone with a good knowledge of Linux can find things out
pretty quickly, but for the average user, a password system I'd think would
be a good deterrant.

On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 04:32, Siegfried Gevatter <email address hidden> wrote:

> I don't really see the point in this. If they want to know what you're
> doing, and they have access to their session, there's plenty of ways to
> get even more information (including keyloggers and all sorts of evil
> stuff). Having a password in the Settings dialog isn't going to help
> much (also, even if it was, they can still turn on logging by manually
> editing the configuration file).
>
> ** Package changed: zeitgeist (Ubuntu) => activity-log-manager (Ubuntu)
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/965832
>
> Title:
> Privacy (Zeitgeist) in System Settings needs password protection
>
> Status in “activity-log-manager” package in Ubuntu:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> Anyone could go into the Privacy feature in System Settings and undo
> every non-recorded folder, file type or application, or turn recording
> on when it was turned off, and thus see whatever the user was trying
> to hide. This is a feature that should have password protection to not
> only view what the settings are but also to change them.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
> Package: zeitgeist 0.8.99~alpha3-1
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-18.29-generic 3.2.9
> Uname: Linux 3.2.0-18-generic x86_64
> ApportVersion: 1.94.1-0ubuntu2
> Architecture: amd64
> Date: Tue Mar 27 13:49:16 2012
> InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Beta amd64
> (20120301)
> PackageArchitecture: all
> ProcEnviron:
> LANGUAGE=en_NZ:en
> TERM=xterm
> LANG=en_NZ.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> SourcePackage: zeitgeist
> UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-03-12 (14 days ago)
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/activity-log-manager/+bug/965832/+subscriptions
>

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Marc Deslauriers (mdeslaur)]

This is running under the user's session. Adding any authentication there would be security theater since it would be trivial to bypass.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Besides being security theater, "someone might change my Privacy settings to make stuff show up in the Dash" doesn't make sense as a threat worth protecting against individually. If an untrustworthy person has access to your computer for long enough to change your Privacy settings, there are hundreds of more effective things that person could do -- for example, look at your browser history, search your offline e-mail, browse LibreOffice's "Open Recent" submenu, or just steal your computer entirely. If you don't want someone to be able to do any of those things, then set an account password, lock your session, and use full-disk encryption and/or a laptop lock if necessary.

The duplicate reports bug 974885 and bug 1077621, slightly more sensibly, complain that someone can open your Privacy settings and see *directly* a list of what you are trying to hide, rather than waiting for those things to pop up in the Dash. But that's just the nature of listing secrets. For example, if you want Christmas gifts you're buying to be a surprise, there are two things you need to keep hidden: the gifts, and the shopping list. In the same way, if you use the Privacy settings to help save you from embarrassment, there are two things you still need to keep out of sight: the embarrassing things themselves, and the settings panel that lists them. To do that, the solutions are the same as before: an account password, locking your session, and so on.