Comment 0 for bug 1803993

This was found when an administrative error made /home directory inaccessible. Any users that tried to login after that, were not able to (which is expected) but their password appears on the VT1 screen. Under normal circumstances, VT1 is not visible. But once the system was sent into this compromised mode, one can press ctrl+alt+F1 and then ctrl+alt+F2 and get a momentary glance at VT1. One can keep toggling between these key combinations in order to make out the password(s) on VT1.

As a further test, I wanted to see if a non-super user could cause this condition, and it is in fact possible. As a regular user, I made their own home directory not writable and then removed ~/.config and logged out. Then logged in as that user again, and although that user can't login the system does go into that mode where passwords appear on VT1 and are viewable with the key combinations mentioned herein. Further, any other users that login will see no problem, but when they logon their passwords also appear on VT1 and are viewable.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: gdm3 3.28.3-0ubuntu18.04.3
Uname: Linux 4.19.2-041902-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.5
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Mon Nov 19 08:32:59 2018
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-08-25 (85 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180426)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gdm3
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)