Package: login
Version: 1:4.13+dfsg1-4
Severity: normal


Hi,

Could default home folder permissions lean towards greater privacy,
while administrators can adjust permissions to be less strict if
necessary? In my mind, this is a more practical approach to both
security and privacy.

Several distributions, including Ubuntu, Fedora [1], Arch [2] and
openSUSE [3], have already implemented more privacy-oriented permissions.

What I would like is to have 'HOME_MODE' [4] uncommented.
Would it be possible to implement this, or a similar change in Debian?


Regards,

Hi,

I vaguely remember the installer has an option for this, possibly
only on expert mode. If so, it would be good if the installer
default would change (or so).

If the installer has no option for this, please reassign to
src:shadow, so we can think about it more.

Chris

Chris Hofstaedtler <zeha@debian.org> writes:

Isn't it worth noting that normal users can adjust the permissions of
their own home directory?

For what it's worth, the last time this topic came up (sometime in the
last eight or nine years) the consensus was that enhancing default home
folder permissions for improved privacy would break sites that depend on
default home folder permissions that facilitate collaboration.

I don't have a preference either way by the way.

Best,
Nicholas

I always use expert install and have never seen such option.

AFAICS user-setup uses adduser if installed in the target system,
useradd otherwise.