Latest revision as of 21:58, 17 October 2024

Enable pwfeedback in sudo by default

This is a proposed Change for Fedora Linux.
This document represents a proposed Change. As part of the Changes process, proposals are publicly announced in order to receive community feedback. This proposal will only be implemented if approved by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee.

Summary

This change enables visual feedback for sudo's password prompt by default.

Owner

Name: Skye Chappelle
Email: skyeforeverblue@tuta.io

Current status

Targeted release: Fedora Linux 42
Last updated: 2024-10-17
[Announced]
[<will be assigned by the Wrangler> Discussion thread]
FESCo issue: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
Tracker bug: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
Release notes tracker: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>

Detailed Description

Feedback

Several (most) of the users in the Fedora Discussion thread I made for this agree that this change makes sense, for several reasons:

- "Hmmm, I haven’t thought about this in years — thanks for bringing it up. I think it’s a reasonable suggestion, especially since other password prompts on the desktop act that way." (mattdm)

- "Even as an experienced Linux user there are times when I’m not sure I’m actually typing the password or not." (bcotton)

- "I think this is a reasonable distro-wide (that is, for all variants) change to consider, since it’s a strange default to not show feedback when typing. There are also implications for remote connectivity: if you don’t see feedback, you cannot tell if your typing actually made it over to the other side and that can result in you inadvertently mistyping." (ngompa)

Espionage724 had some differing opinions:

- "No since nobody else does it." (this is not true; several other distributions, notably Linux Mint, do this by default as well)

- "It can be an option for people that want it, but I don’t agree with it being a default. I believe it to be reducing a good security practice as a minor user “convenience”, and don’t like the idea of encouraging others to reduce good security practices/exposing others to reduced good security practices." (mattdm had earlier said "Also, in 2024, if you are worried enough about someone snooping over your shoulder to gain information about your password length… why are you still using passwords?", which I believe is valid. (Matthew said this before Espionage724 chimed in, but it works as a good response to Espionage724's statement here.))

Espionage724 suggested an alternative to enabling this by default:

"They could tie it behind a gsettings prop; I already have to mess with my mouse stuff through it with libinput. I’m not too sure how other DEs handle that, but iirc gsettings didn’t throw an error on Plasma 6, and was usable on Xfce also for mouse accel.". catanzaro replied to this with "GNOME is not going to expose a preference for whether sudo should display asterisks when you type your password or not. That’s way too niche.", which is unfortunately probably true.

vgaetera says, "I think we should more carefully consider this change. The silent prompt behavior is consistent for most CLI tools.", which I think is worth considering; however, I still think the usability benefit outweighs this.

Benefit to Fedora

This change will benefit Fedora by making sudo easier to use for both novice and advanced users. It will make Fedora Linux more friendly and approachable for everyone.

Scope

Proposal owner: Skye Chappelle

Other developers:

Release engineering: #Releng issue number

Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)

Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)

Alignment with the Fedora Strategy:

I think this aligns with the Fedora Strategy because it makes Fedora Linux slightly more usable for everyone, new and old users alike.

Upgrade/compatibility impact

According to ngompa, RPM should handle this in exactly the way I wanted without much effort. The change will only take effect if someone hasn't modified their sudoers file(s) manually.

Early Testing (Optional)

Do you require 'QA Blueprint' support? N (not system wide change)

How To Test

Edit /etc/sudoers, replacing "Defaults !visiblepw" with "Defaults pwfeedback". Run a command with sudo. Your password should be displayed as asterisks in the prompt.

User Experience

This will make sudo password prompts more friendly and consistent with other password prompts a normal user is likely to encounter. This will make it easier for novices and advanced users to use the system. -->

Dependencies

N/A

Contingency Plan

Contingency mechanism: (What to do? Who will do it?) N/A (not a System Wide Change)
Contingency deadline: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
Blocks release? N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Documentation

N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Release Notes

sudo now shows visual feedback for passwords by default on Desktop releases.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 <!-- The actual name of your proposed change page should look something like: Changes/Your_Change_Proposal_Name.  This keeps all change proposals in the same namespace -->
-= Enable pwfeedback in sudo by default<!-- The name of your change proposal -->=
+= Enable pwfeedback in sudo by default <!-- The name of your change proposal -->=
 {{Change_Proposal_Banner}}
 == Summary ==
-<!-- A sentence or two summarizing what this change is and what it will do. This information is used for the overall changeset summary page for each release. Note that motivation for the change should be in the Benefit to Fedora section below, and this part should answer the question "What?" rather than "Why?". -->
+This change enables visual feedback for sudo's password prompt by default.
 == Owner ==
-<!--
-For change proposals to qualify as self-contained, owners of all affected packages need to be included here. Alternatively, a SIG can be listed as an owner if it owns all affected packages.
-This should link to your home wiki page so we know who you are.
--->
 * Name: [[User:Skyeforeverblue|Skye Chappelle]]
-<!-- Include you email address that you can be reached should people want to contact you about helping with your change, status is requested, or technical issues need to be resolved. If the change proposal is owned by a SIG, please also add a primary contact person. -->
 * Email: skyeforeverblue@tuta.io
 <!--- UNCOMMENT only for Changes with assigned Shepherd (by FESCo)
@@ Line 71: / Line 66: @@
 == Benefit to Fedora ==
-This change will benefit Fedora by making sudo easier to use for both novice and advanced users. It will make Fedora Linux more friendly and approachable for everyone.<!-- What is the benefit to the distribution?  Will the software we generate be improved? How will the process of creating Fedora releases be improved?
+This change will benefit Fedora by making sudo easier to use for both novice and advanced users. It will make Fedora Linux more friendly and approachable for everyone.
-      Be sure to include the following areas if relevant:
-      If this is a major capability update, what has changed?
-           For example: This change introduces Python 5 that runs without the Global Interpreter Lock and is fully multithreaded.
-      If this is a new functionality, what capabilities does it bring?
-           For example: This change allows package upgrades to be performed automatically and rolled-back at will.
-      Does this improve some specific package or set of packages?
-           For example: This change modifies a package to use a different language stack that reduces install size by removing dependencies.
-      Does this improve specific Spins or Editions?
-           For example: This change modifies the default install of Fedora Workstation to be more in line with the base install of Fedora Server.
-      Does this make the distribution more efficient?
-           For example: This change replaces thousands of individual %post scriptlets in packages with one script that runs at the end.
-      Is this an improvement to maintainer processes?
-           For example: Gating Fedora packages on automatic QA tests will make rawhide more stable and allow changes to be implemented more smoothly.
-      Is this an improvement targeted as specific contributors?
-           For example: Ensuring that a minimal set of tools required for contribution to Fedora are installed by default eases the onboarding of new contributors.
-     When a Change has multiple benefits, it's better to list them all.
-     Consider these Change pages from previous editions as inspiration:
-     https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Annobin (low-level and technical, invisible to users)
-     https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/ParallelInstallableDebuginfo (low-level, but visible to advanced users)
-     https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/VirtualBox_Guest_Integration (primarily a UX change)
-     https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/NoMoreAlpha (an improvement to distro processes)
-     https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/perl5.26 (major upgrade to a popular software stack, visible to users of that stack)
--->
 == Scope ==
-* Proposal owners:
+* Proposal owner: Skye Chappelle
 <!-- What work do the feature owners have to accomplish to complete the feature in time for release?  Is it a large change affecting many parts of the distribution or is it a very isolated change? What are those changes?-->
@@ Line 120: / Line 89: @@
 == Upgrade/compatibility impact ==
-My ideal plan for this on an upgrade would be to install the new default ''unless'' we detect that /etc/sudoers(.d) has been manually changed, the logic being that if a user is changing their sudoers files, they know how they want this setting to behave.
+According to ngompa, RPM should handle this in exactly the way I wanted without much effort. The change will only take effect if someone hasn't modified their sudoers file(s) manually.
-However, I'm not a developer, and I don't know how hard something like that would be to implement. If that proves to be too much, I'm fine with only enabling this on new clean installations.
 <!-- What happens to systems that have had a previous versions of Fedora installed and are updated to the version containing this change? Will anything require manual configuration or data migration? Will any existing functionality be no longer supported? -->
@@ Line 134: / Line 101: @@
 == How To Test ==
-<!-- This does not need to be a full-fledged document. Describe the dimensions of tests that this change implementation is expected to pass when it is done.  This can be based off of the above section if early testing has been completed. If it needs to be tested with different hardware or software configurations, indicate them.  The more specific you can be, the better the community testing can be.
+Edit /etc/sudoers, replacing "Defaults !visiblepw" with "Defaults pwfeedback". Run a command with sudo. Your password should be displayed as asterisks in the prompt.
-Remember that you are writing this how to for interested testers to use to check out your change implementation - documenting what you do for testing is OK, but it's much better to document what *I* can do to test your change.
-A good "how to test" should answer these four questions:
-. What special hardware / data / etc. is needed (if any)?
-. How do I prepare my system to test this change? What packages
-need to be installed, config files edited, etc.?
-. What specific actions do I perform to check that the change is
-working like it's supposed to?
-. What are the expected results of those actions?
--->
-<!-- REQUIRED FOR SYSTEM WIDE CHANGES -->
 == User Experience ==
-This will make sudo password prompts more friendly and consistent with other password prompts a normal user is likely to encounter. This will make it easier for novices and advanced users to use the system. <!-- If this change proposal is noticeable by users, how will their experiences change as a result?
+This will make sudo password prompts more friendly and consistent with other password prompts a normal user is likely to encounter. This will make it easier for novices and advanced users to use the system.
- This section partially overlaps with the Benefit to Fedora section above. This section should be primarily about the User Experience, written in a way that does not assume deep technical knowledge. More detailed technical description should be left for the Benefit to Fedora section.
- Describe what Users will see or notice, for example:
-  - Packages are compressed more efficiently, making downloads and upgrades faster by 10%.
-  - Kerberos tickets can be renewed automatically. Users will now have to authenticate less and become more productive. Credential management improvements mean a user can start their work day with a single sign on and not have to pause for reauthentication during their entire day.
- - Libreoffice is one of the most commonly installed applications on Fedora and it is now available by default to help users "hit the ground running".
- - Green has been scientifically proven to be the most relaxing color. The move to a default background color of green with green text will result in Fedora users being the most relaxed users of any operating system.
 -->
 == Dependencies ==
-<!-- What other packages (RPMs) depend on this package?  Are there changes outside the developers' control on which completion of this change depends?  In other words, completion of another change owned by someone else and might cause you to not be able to finish on time or that you would need to coordinate?  Other upstream projects like the kernel (if this is not a kernel change)? -->
+N/A
-<!-- REQUIRED FOR SYSTEM WIDE CHANGES -->
 == Contingency Plan ==
-<!-- If you cannot complete your feature by the final development freeze, what is the backup plan?  This might be as simple as "Revert the shipped configuration".  Or it might not (e.g. rebuilding a number of dependent packages).  If you feature is not completed in time we want to assure others that other parts of Fedora will not be in jeopardy.  -->
 * Contingency mechanism: (What to do?  Who will do it?) N/A (not a System Wide Change)  <!-- REQUIRED FOR SYSTEM WIDE CHANGES -->
 <!-- When is the last time the contingency mechanism can be put in place?  This will typically be the beta freeze. -->
 * Contingency deadline: N/A (not a System Wide Change)  <!-- REQUIRED FOR SYSTEM WIDE CHANGES -->
 <!-- Does finishing this feature block the release, or can we ship with the feature in incomplete state? -->
-* Blocks release? N/A (not a System Wide Change), Yes/No <!-- REQUIRED FOR SYSTEM WIDE CHANGES -->
+* Blocks release? N/A (not a System Wide Change) <!-- REQUIRED FOR SYSTEM WIDE CHANGES -->
@@ Line 185: / Line 125: @@
 == Release Notes ==
+sudo now shows visual feedback for passwords by default on Desktop releases.
 <!-- The Fedora Release Notes inform end-users about what is new in the release.  Examples of past release notes are at https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora/latest/release-notes/ -->
 <!-- The release notes also help users know how to deal with platform changes such as ABIs/APIs, configuration or data file formats, or upgrade concerns.  If there are any such changes involved in this change, indicate them here.  A link to upstream documentation will often satisfy this need.  This information forms the basis of the release notes edited by the documentation team and shipped with the release.
@@ Line 190: / Line 131: @@
 Release Notes are not required for initial draft of the Change Proposal but has to be completed by the Change Freeze.
 -->
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-{{admon/tip | Guidance | For details on how to fill out this form, see the [https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/program_management/changes_guide/ documentation].}}
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 <!-- The actual name of your proposed change page should look something like: Changes/Your_Change_Proposal_Name.  This keeps all change proposals in the same namespace -->

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