Re: [seul-edu] youngsters logging in

[Harry McGregor <micros@azstarnet.com>]

On Fri, 11 May 2001, Kevin Brown wrote:

> at my school all of the student accounts have null passwords. the only
> people who have passwords are the teachers
> and the administrators. there isn't really any security troubles either.
> no one cares to read anyone elses files cause
> there isnt anything interesting there other than typed stories. unless
> these grade ones have important files than
> null passwords might be a good idea. i dont know your situation of the
> school so maybe this wouldnt be a good idea.
> but those cuecats do look cool.

Same situation here, at Corbett.  I just have to keep convincing teachers
that the students MUST login as themselves (systems in the classrooms,
etc), and not to log the system in with their username/password at the
beging of the day, and leave it logged in.

We use the system name, and ident information for our proxy server
permisions, and logging.

> Kevin.
>
> ps - how would u make the access cards for the cuecats? are there any
> bar code making software for Linux?

You should be able to use this package for it:

Package: barcode
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: graphics
Installed-Size: 109
Maintainer: Jim Westveer <jwest@netnw.com>
Version: 0.95.1-4
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.1.2), libpaperg (>= 1.0.3-4)
Description: Creates barcodes in .ps format
 GNU barcode can create printouts for the conventional
 product packagging standards: UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-13, EAN-8, ISBN, code 39
 code 128 (b and c), and interleaved 2 of 5 . Ouput is generated as
 either Postscript or Encapsulated Postscript.


		Harry

> Jim Thomas wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm the volunteer sysadmin of a 20-PC linux lab in a small K12 private
> > school.  The school would like to get the younger students into the lab
> > on a regular basis, and I'm starting to worry about the logistics of
> > having the younger ones log in.  Since they can't type very well (if at
> > all), correctly typing in a username/passwd pair will be monumentally
> > difficult for them.  I'm sure the teacher would spend the first 20
> > minutes of lab time getting them logged in, and I doubt that she'd be
> > very happy about that.
> >
> > I posted my quandary to comp.os.linux.security with two proposals and
> > solicited comments and/or alternate proposals.  I'd liketo summarize for
> > SEUL/Edu.
> >
> > 1) Write an app that the teacher runs from the server.  This app logs
> > the students into their assigned machines.
> >
> > 2) Use null passwords for the younger students, but lock their
> > accounts.  The teacher runs an app that unlocks one account per machine
> > for a five-minute period.  Optionally, the student's .bashrc could
> > launch an suid app which re-locks the euid's account and close the
> > window a little earlier.
> >
> > These proposals were fairly well received, with option two being the
> > favored one.  Then someone else proposed a third option:
> >
> > 3) Print ID cards with username/passwd's encoded for a bar code
> > scanner.  Install bar code scanners on all the machines.  Radio Shack is
> > giving away FREE bar code scanners (do a web search on Cue:Cat).  These
> > come with Windows software which will launch a web browser and connect a
> > user to a manufacturer's web site when a product's UPC is scanned (or to
> > Amazon when a book's ISBN number is scanned).  Each bar code reader
> > comes with a unique serial number, so the privacy implications here are
> > horrific, but that's an aside.  Several people have developed code to
> > read the output of the Cue:Cat, including a PAM module, but AFAIK, no
> > one has put together a complete package for login authentication.
> >
> > I'd like to extend this scheme so that the ID cards can also be used as
> > library cards with Koha, and I'd ALSO like to use them for logging into
> > the few Winders boxen we have (using a samba server).
> >
> > Has anyone tried this?  Does anyone want to help work on this?
> > This could be very sweet!
> >
>

--
Harry McGregor, CEO, Co-Founder
Hmcgregor@osef.org, (520) 661-7875 (CELL)
Open Source Education Foundation, http://www.osef.org