Revision as of 19:04, 15 February 2010

15 Feb 2010

Need to avoid having nested firstboot screens
Need to avoid having multiple ways to do the same thing
UI vs command line vs config files
Please only use one menu item, not two
The basic pattern we had come up with was, "Have two paths, and ask the user a question to figure out which path they should go on and put them

on it." (e.g., local account only, vs centrally-managed account are the two paths.)

A better path would be, "Put the users on the most common path (local account only) and offerthem the option to also go on the alternative path."(which is how firstboot works today, but the language in the dialog is confusing to users.) The problem is, having three levels of dialogs is unacceptable from a usability standpoint. The challenge: can we come up with a way to have one dialog to configure both SSSD and the legacy way and have it not suck?

Identity Technology	Authentication Technology	Recommended Implementation	Misc Notes
LDAP	Kerberos	SSSD	17%
LDAP	LDAP	SSSD	80%
NIS	Kerberos	Legacy auth-config	should not call 'secure' because that's used to mean something else wrt NIS ('usually means you've set things up at the server so that clients can only read from certain maps (for example, 'passwd.adjunct', which is similar in purpose and use to /etc/shadow) if they send their request from privileged ports')
NIS	NIS	Legacy auth-config	far more common than NIS / shadow
Winbind	Winbind	Legacy auth-config
Hesiod	Historically, Kerberos	Cut from UI	iastate / NCSU / MIT potential current users. iastate said it's fine to cut from UI, they don't need UI for it.
Smart Card (cert-based)	Smart Card (cert-based)	too difficult to manage without UI, can't drop.	will be in SSSD 6-12 months / smartcard/smartcard most common setup
Smart Card (cert-based)	Kerberos	too difficult to manage without UI, can't drop.	Least common setup, smart card enables you to get a krb ticket
???	Fingerprint	Cut from UI

Have to know how user info maps to password. Legacy UI lets you select all the user info / password methods you want, and tries different combos until it finds something that works. The new way requires you explicitly state the user info + password mapping. (explicit mapping is less prone to accidental configuration thus more secure - less holes that could be broken through)

Kerberos (should be kept for NIS)
LDAP (should be pulled)
Smartcard (consider pulling, talk to Nalin, et. al.)
Fingerprint (consider pulling)
- locally works by just installing the right package. GNOME About Me dialog handles.
- network - nobody reasonable uses this over the network
Winbind (should be kept for winbind)

Cache user info KEEP
- uses nscd. Identity, not auth. Requires less nework trips if enabled - otherwise everytime you type 'ls' or 'ps ax' it uses a network trip to identify the username <=> uid mappings. Can't kill it. Has a higher-performance cache even though it gets staler / harder to flush / caches more stuff than SSSD does.
Use shadow KILL
- this should be enabled. it removes the ability for non-root users to read your password hash.
password hash login KEEP
- only useful for local users
- controls creation of new passwords
- folks in particular countries with particular regulations (including france?) government workers care about this
local authorization sufficient KILL
- enable it by default
auth sys accounts via network KILL
- disable it
- for example, apache accounts are not normally login enabled accounts anyway. this would let you auth it over the network.
check access.conf during auth KEEP
- reword 'Enable local access control'
create homedirs on first login KEEP
- 2 ways to do it, pam-make homedirs vs pam make homedirs dbus
- dbus method uses policykit/root, more capabilitity but currently issues with setting proper SELinux user context

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 * Need to avoid having multiple ways to do the same thing
 * UI vs command line vs config files
+* Please only use one menu item, not two
+* The basic pattern we had come up with was, "Have two paths, and ask the user a question to figure out which path they should go on and put them
+on it." (e.g., local account only, vs centrally-managed account are the two paths.)
+* A better path would be, "Put the users on the most common path (local account only) and offerthem the option to also go on the alternative path."(which is how firstboot works today, but the language in the dialog is confusing to users.) The problem is, having three levels of dialogs is unacceptable from a usability standpoint. The challenge: can we come up with a way to have one dialog to configure both SSSD and the legacy way and have it not suck?
 = Technology Review =