Public bug reported: If you have a user account with a password, someone with physical access to your computer can still access your account by holding down Shift during startup, choosing recovery mode, and changing your password.
This is an intractable problem. For example, from Microsoft's "10 immutable laws of security": "If a bad guy has unrestricted physical access to your computer, it's not your computer anymore". <http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc722487.aspx#EIAA> However, probably it isn't obvious to a non-professional that a password alone isn't enough to secure their stuff. So perhaps, wherever Ubuntu lets you set a password (Ubiquity, System Settings "User Accounts"), it should contain a brief (very brief) explanation of this. Something like: "A password doesn’t protect against someone with physical access to the computer." ** Affects: gnome-control-center (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Assignee: Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt) Status: New ** Affects: ubiquity (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Assignee: Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt) Status: New ** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu) Assignee: (unassigned) => Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt) ** Also affects: gnome-control-center (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Changed in: gnome-control-center (Ubuntu) Assignee: (unassigned) => Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt) ** Description changed: If you have a user account with a password, someone with physical access to your computer can still access your account by holding down Shift during startup, choosing recovery mode, and changing your password. - There is an intractable problem. For example, from Microsoft's "10 + This is an intractable problem. For example, from Microsoft's "10 immutable laws of security": "If a bad guy has unrestricted physical access to your computer, it's not your computer anymore". <http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc722487.aspx#EIAA> However, probably it isn't obvious to a non-professional that a password alone isn't enough to secure their stuff. So perhaps, wherever Ubuntu lets you set a password (Ubiquity, System Settings "User Accounts"), it should contain a brief (very brief) explanation of this. Something like: "A password doesn’t protect against someone with physical access to the computer." -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to gnome-control-center in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/878906 Title: Not obvious that giving your account a password is not physical security Status in “gnome-control-center” package in Ubuntu: New Status in “ubiquity” package in Ubuntu: New Bug description: If you have a user account with a password, someone with physical access to your computer can still access your account by holding down Shift during startup, choosing recovery mode, and changing your password. This is an intractable problem. For example, from Microsoft's "10 immutable laws of security": "If a bad guy has unrestricted physical access to your computer, it's not your computer anymore". <http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc722487.aspx#EIAA> However, probably it isn't obvious to a non-professional that a password alone isn't enough to secure their stuff. So perhaps, wherever Ubuntu lets you set a password (Ubiquity, System Settings "User Accounts"), it should contain a brief (very brief) explanation of this. Something like: "A password doesn’t protect against someone with physical access to the computer." To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-control-center/+bug/878906/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
