16 Jul
2021
16 Jul
'21
9:39 p.m.
I have had TDE installed for over a month, but suddenly (maybe unrelated
but right after installing google-earth and using it for the first time),
a dialog box popped up asking me to enter my password to "unlock the login
keyring" and that the password was not entered when I logged in. I cliked
on "Cancel". Any idea what this is? How can I get rid of it?
Thanks,
Gianluca
-----------------------------------------------------
Gianluca Interlandi, PhD gianluca(a)u.washington.edu
+1 (206) 685 4435
http://gianluca.today/
Department of Bioengineering
University of Washington, Seattle WA U.S.A.
-----------------------------------------------------
16 Jul
16 Jul
10:34 p.m.
I think the Google Earth installation is not unrelated. I remember experiencing something
like this on my systems, not only with Google Earth (e.g. Vivaldi, Skype for Linux) and
the culprit was apparently the Gnome Keyring library (a GNOME analog of TDE Wallets, but
there is only one wallet and its password is the user's password) which is used by
some software to store keys, etc.
Google Earth seems to store some API-specific data it uses to connect to Google servers in
the Keyring.
Normally the keyring gets automatically unlocked on logon without the user even noticing.
Sometimes it doesn't. This happens when the appropriate service (don't remember
which) is not started upon startup. Then, the first time access is requested by one of the
applications, this prompt shows. It certainly seems like this happened in your case.
Hope this helps to find the solution.
--
Mavridis Phlippe
10:46 p.m.
Hi Phlippe,
Thanks for the explanation. I have a couple of questions below.
On Fri, 16 Jul 2021, Mavridis Philippe wrote:
I think the Google Earth installation is not
unrelated. I remember
experiencing something like this on my systems, not only with Google
Earth (e.g. Vivaldi, Skype for Linux) and the culprit was apparently the
Gnome Keyring library (a GNOME analog of TDE Wallets, but there is only
one wallet and its password is the user's password) which is used by
some software to store keys, etc.
Google Earth seems to store some API-specific data it uses to connect to
Google servers in the Keyring.
Does this not cause any security issues? I mean does the password not get
stored on a google server? Also, would I enter the same password as my
user account? I normally do not setup a TDE Wallet or GNOME keyring.
Gianluca
Normally the keyring gets automatically unlocked on
logon without the
user even noticing. Sometimes it doesn't. This happens when the
appropriate service (don't remember which) is not started upon startup.
Then, the first time access is requested by one of the applications,
this prompt shows. It certainly seems like this happened in your case.
Hope this helps to find the solution.
--
Mavridis Phlippe
-----------------------------------------------------
Gianluca Interlandi, PhD gianluca(a)u.washington.edu
+1 (206) 685 4435
http://gianluca.today/
Department of Bioengineering
University of Washington, Seattle WA U.S.A.
-----------------------------------------------------
11 p.m.
Does this not cause any security issues? I mean does
the password not get stored on a google server? Also, would I enter the same password as
my user account? I normally do not setup a TDE Wallet or GNOME keyring.
The password should be the same as your user account – at least this is what
always worked for me in that case.
The password is not sent anywhere – it's just the way the Keyring protects the data it
stores. The data sent is the data stored in the Keyring, and this data is locally
protected by the password. So, probably no security issues here.
And, you didn't have to set up GNOME Keyring – it quietly sets up itself, most
probably the first time a program tries to use it.
You could theoretically safely uninstall this library. Google Earth would be probably
unharmed. But, speaking from experience, some Chromium-based browsers might react badly to
such a sudden change and some others might keep forgetting credentials and bug you with a
login prompt every time they start (Skype).
--
Mavridis Philippe
1255
days inactive
1255
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3 comments
2 participants
participants (2)
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Gianluca Interlandi -
Mavridis Philippe