<sect1 id="passwords">

<sect1info>

<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Krishna</firstname>
<surname>Tateneni</surname>
<affiliation><address><email>
tateneni@pluto.njcc.com
</email></address></affiliation>
</author>
</authorgroup>

<date>16/08/2000</date>
<releaseinfo>1.00.00</releaseinfo>

<keywordset>
<keyword>KDE</keyword>
<keyword>KControl</keyword>
<keyword>password</keyword>
</keywordset>

</sect1info>

<title>Passwords</title>


<sect2 id="passwords-intro">
<title>Introduction</title>

<para>This module of the &kcontrol; gives you options for configuring the way in
which the &kdesu; program treats passwords. &kdesu; will ask you for a password
when you try to carry out some privileged actions, such as changing the
date/time stored in your system clock, or adding new users on your
computer.</para>

<para>Privileged actions such as those described above can only be carried out
by root or a user with administrator permissions on your system. You will need
to enter the password for the root account when you want to carry out such
actions.</para>

<important><para>The options in this module do not affect the behavior of
passwords in other programs such as <application>KMail</application>.</para>
</important>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="passwords-use">
<title>Use</title>

<para>There are two configuration options for passwords. The first is to control
the visual feedback that you receive when you type a password. The actual
characters in the password are never shown on the screen. You can choose to have
each character represented by a <token>*</token> character. If you want to make
it harder for someone who might be watching your screen to figure out how many
characters there are in the password, you can choose to have each character in
the password be represented by three asterisks rather than just one. Still
another option is not to have any visual feedback at all, so nothing appears on
the screen when you type a password.</para>

<para>If you work in a reasonably secure environment, you can check the option
labeled <guilabel>Remember Passwords</guilabel>, and then choose a time period
in minutes using the spinner labeled <guilabel>Timeout</guilabel>. (You can
either type a number between 5 and 1200 minutes, or use the arrows on the
spinner.)</para>

<para>If the <guilabel>Remember passwords</guilabel> option has been selected,
<application>kdesu</application> will not ask you for a password for the length
of time specified, after you have given the password once. Keep in mind,
however, that this makes your workstation less secure.</para>

<important><para>You should avoid selecting the <guilabel>Remember
passwords</guilabel> option if you are working in an insecure area, such as a
publicly accessible workstation. Also, note that choosing a shorter timeout may
be better if you are in a less secure environment.</para></important>

</sect2>


<sect2 id="passwords-author">
<title>Section Author</title>

<para>This section written by:</para>
<para>Krishna Tateneni
<email>tateneni@pluto.njcc.com</email>.</para>

</sect2>


</sect1>
