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Message #108598
[Bug 878906] Re: Not obvious that giving your account a password is not physical security
** Changed in: gnome-control-center (Ubuntu)
Status: Triaged => Confirmed
** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu)
Status: In Progress => Confirmed
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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:
Confirmed
Status in libclass-spiffy-perl package in Ubuntu:
New
Status in ubiquity package in Ubuntu:
Confirmed
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."
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References