Re: Idea: implementation of the password command

[Marco Gerards]

Hi,

Bean <address@hidden> writes:

> First of all, we can store the encrypted password in a variable, like
> PASSWORD. It's better to store it in grubenv. as it is more flexible,
> and also allows the user to change it from the grub environment.

I am not sure if this is what we want.  It might be a security risk.

> Then, we can add a password hook to normal.mod. Whenever we need
> password verification, like before execution of menu or switching to
> console mode, we call the hook and check the return value.
>
> I introduce the attribute list concept in the other post. For example,
> we can assign some attribute to a menuitem, one of which is "locked".
> If we found this attribute, we call the password hook, otherwise
> execute the menu directly.

Personally I do not want to limit to passwords only.  There might be
other ways to authenticate.  Perhaps as simple as inserting a card for
identification or such.

> We can also add a userland command check_password, which check the
> password and return true or false. This can be used in script to run
> some part of code when password matches.

Userland?

> Another way for userland interactive is to use variable hook instead
> of command. For example, GET_PASSWORD. Whenever its value is query, we
> prompt the user for password and return the encrypted value. Here are
> some example of its usage:
>
> # Verify password
> if ($PASSWORD = $GET_PASSWORD) then
>  ...
> fi
>
> # Store the new password
> PASSWORD=$GET_PASSWORD
> save_env PASSWORD
>
> This way looks neat, but it requires a working test command to be useful.

I think this might become a security risk easily :-/.  Although I like
exploiting scripting, I prefer to keep security contained to C code.

--
Marco