[Fingerforce-devel] Bug#469059: libpam-fprint: doesn't allow password authentication if enabled

[Luca Capello]

Package: libpam-fprint
Version: 0.2-1
Severity: important

Hello,

differently from ThinkFinger, fprint doesn't allow direct password
authentication instead of swiping your finger.  This has slightly
different effects WRT the program asking for authentication:

- login/su/sudo
    you must swipe "fault" fingers until the "too many
    failed scans" message appears and then you are asked for your
    password.  A security-related side-effect is that you can still type
    your password, which is shown on the screen...

- gnome-screensaver
    similar to login/su/sudo, while you can type your password (this
    time substituted by a point character), the "Unlock" button is
    disabled until too many failed scans happened

- xscreensaver/xlockmore
    the major problem is that you cannot directly swipe your finger, but
    you need to first press ENTER (or the OK button), thus the user
    doesn't understand what's happening

Except for xlockmore (bug #469034 [1]), ThinkFinger works flawlessly
after having applied the patches at bug #469043 [2] and #469048 [3].
This is the main reason I think the problem is libpam-fprint and not the
above programs.

Thx, bye,
Gismo / Luca

Footnotes: 
[1] http://bugs.debian.org/469034
[2] http://bugs.debian.org/469043
[3] http://bugs.debian.org/469048

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (990, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.24-1-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages libpam-fprint depends on:
ii  libc6                         2.7-9      GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libfprint0                    0.0.5-2    fingerprint library of fprint proj
ii  libpam0g                      0.99.7.1-5 Pluggable Authentication Modules l

libpam-fprint recommends no packages.

-- no debconf information