Arch Linux

sant527

Member

Registered: 2009-06-21

Posts: 273

restrict a user from seeing videos

My comp has a single user names "polo".

Many a times my friends use the computer to watch videos using different video players (like vlc, smplayer) etc

I want to complete diable video viewing on my computer. It should be such that whenever i want i can just change the settings and view video.

when i type groups: the following is the output.

sys disk lp games video audio optical storage scanner power users wireshark vboxusers

By the way what are "Pre-systemd groups" http://https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Users_and_groups

Because i am just updating my comp from several years. For a new installation what are the groups required to run a system with all graphics running.

Last edited by sant527 (2014-03-06 13:40:18)

drcouzelis

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 4,092

Website

Re: restrict a user from seeing videos

Many a times my friends use the computer to watch videos using different video players (like vlc, smplayer) etc

I want to complete diable video viewing on my computer. It should be such that whenever i want i can just change the settings and view video.

Uninstall vlc and smplayer (and any other video player) and don't give your friends the root password to use "pacman".

My question: What is the real problem? Why are your friends using your computer? Can you lock your computer?

when i type groups: the following is the output.

If there is only one user, then you won't be able to use "groups" to disable video players.

sant527

Member

Registered: 2009-06-21

Posts: 273

Re: restrict a user from seeing videos

Even i cant play video is also ok. But tell me how to do even for single user

drcouzelis

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 4,092

Website

Re: restrict a user from seeing videos

...How about uninstalling the video players?

silverhammermba

Wiki Maintainer

Registered: 2011-04-14

Posts: 156

Re: restrict a user from seeing videos

This is very difficult to do. Assuming your friends have access to the internet and dev tools, they could always build a video player from source and use it to watch videos.

If you don't think they're sophisticated enough to do that, the easiest way would be to change the permissions of the video players to be executable by root only. Then only users with root access could use them. That can cause other problems, however (VLC doesn't like being run as root).

Other than those options, the only thing I can think of would be to restrict access to X entirely, but that seems undesirable.

By the way what are "Pre-systemd groups"

As it says on the wiki, these groups are no longer needed if using systemd. It looks like you could get away with just having users, wireshark, and vboxusers.

Last edited by silverhammermba (2014-03-06 16:31:42)

progandy

Member

Registered: 2012-05-17

Posts: 5,190

Re: restrict a user from seeing videos

You can use unix acl to limit user access to specific binaries, but after a system upgrade you'll have to re-set all permissions.

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| alias CUTF='LANG=en_XX.UTF-8@POSIX ' |

x33a

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2009-08-15

Posts: 4,587

Re: restrict a user from seeing videos

I don't think that it is possible in any "normal" way.

There are a few workarounds.

You can disable X when you're not around (especially if your friends aren't too technically oriented). This way, the video player won't launch.

You can change the permissions of your video directory to root only, and don't share the root password.

davidm

Member

Registered: 2009-04-25

Posts: 371

Re: restrict a user from seeing videos

You would be better off creating a user for your friends to use.  Perhaps also a special restricteduser group as well.  Then restrict the permissions on the video player binaries or disable them in some other way.  Note that for this to have a chance of being secure against a knowledgeable user you have to password protect the bios setup at the very least and disable CD or USB booting (otherwise they can boot from the CD or USB).  But even then typically they can remove the CMOS battery or use a jumper to clear that password (but you will usually know about it).  Some cases allow you padlock them.

If you just want to stop them from viewing certain videos of yours the above should work reasonably well since you can control the permissions to allow you access but not them.  There is the catch that a motivated and knowledgeable user would be able to get around it unless you are encrypting your /home or such.

But this isn't really a technology problem.   If you tell them not to play videos on your computer and they do anyway then you should probably not let them use the computer anymore.

Last edited by davidm (2014-03-06 18:04:20)

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frank604

Member

From: BC, Canada

Registered: 2011-04-20

Posts: 1,212

Re: restrict a user from seeing videos

Davidm touches a neat point.  Get encryption.  Store videos in encryption.  Use a truecrypt container.  Unlock container to access files inside and lock it when you are done.  This works for not only videos but sensitive documents and other files.