> On Tuesday 22 November 2011 10:47:12 pm Timothy Pearson wrote: >> > Whenever my screen locks (e.g. from my screen saver or from manually >> > locking) and I go to unlock, I'm told to press CTRL+ALT+Del, and it >> says >> > it's displaying that so the login screen doesn't get spoofed. >> > >> > When logging out, I get a window saying it's saving my settings. >> > >> > Both of these remind me of WinXP. The CTRL+ALT+Del thing is of WinNT >> (XP >> > is based on NT). >> > >> > Is there a way to turn this off? >> > >> > Also, if the CTRL+ALT+Del thing is used for unlocking, why not too for >> > logging in? >> >> It is normally used for both unlock and login. It is a generic >> implementation of a Secure Attention Key (SAK), without which Linux is >> actually less secure than Windows. > > Never heard of it, nor have I ever seen CTRL+ALT+Del in Linux The problem boils down to the fact that I can make a perfect copy of the login (or lock) screen, leave it running as a non-priviledged user (e.g. on a public computer), and grab your password. There is no way for you to know the real login screen from a good fake. The SAK allows the operating system to reserve a secure keypress (in this case Ctrl+Alt+Del) that no userspace application will ever be able to see, therefore preventing emulation of the logon sequence before any passwords are typed. > >> The SAK support can be turned off in the KDM control center module. > > I don't see it anywhere under Login Manager or KDM Theme Manager. These > are the only two modules that show up when I type kdm into the search box > for kcontrol. Look for Login Manager in kcontrol. Also, if you really don't like the startup/shudown splash screens simply select a splash screen other than "Unified". Many users here like to have feedback that their computer is actually doing something once logout has been pressed, but to each their own. ;-) Tim