Is there a way to password protect Thunderbird?

d_fajardo · 2019-08-17 07:55:20

I'd like to password protect Thunderbird in such a way that when I click on the icon, it will prompt me for a password. I tried adding 'sudo' to thunderbird.desktop Exec entry but it doesn't work.
I have KDE running on X.
Any way to do it?

seth · 2019-08-17 08:17:45

xy-problem.

You could wrap it in a script that runs kdialog (or similar) to ask for a "password", check that an only on match start thunderbird, but that's pointless.
"sudo" won't work for various reasons, kdesu would, but you'd be running thunderbird as root, what is a major security risk.

=> What do you *actually* seek to protect and against whom?

xerxes_ · 2019-08-17 09:06:46

Why you just don't create account(s) for other user(s) and don't allow them to login on your account (change password)? And then check permissions of .thunderbird/ directory and change if needed, so others can't read what is in that directory.

Or you may encrypt folder with your thunderbird settings in your user directory and decrypt temporarily just before you run thunderbird. This solution might be good when you don't have admin rights on machine.

Last edited by xerxes_ (2019-08-17 09:21:11)

d_fajardo · 2019-08-17 13:04:23

seth wrote:

What do you *actually* seek to protect and against whom?

I will be moving house and will be having a flatmate. I'd like him to have access to my computer mainly for media files - music and movies, but i don't really want to have another user account as I will be using it most of the time and it is a pain to login and out just to check email. With personal files, I can use KDE Vault but would be great to password protect access to Thunderbird as well. It's not a pressing security issue as he's a personal friend and trust him but still would like to know if it's possible to do password protecting.
A script seems to be the way but not sure how to write one.

seth · 2019-08-17 14:13:49

A more reliable way would be to have TB not store the email passwords and use an imap account w/o any local cache.
What you're attempting to do is the equivalent of painting a lock on your door. Looks fancy on a distance, but does nothing.

TB provides profile management, http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager

However if you allow your mate to operate the system w/ your UID, there's no security layer beyond your trust, no matter what.

Trilby · 2019-08-17 14:18:40

d_fajardo wrote:

I don't really want to have another user account as I will be using it most of the time and it is a pain to login and out just to check email.

There's no need to log in and out. Just run two sessions on different ttys. You can lock yours while you're away and the other will still be available. When you return, just unlock your session again.

I believe some DMs have this behavior built in.

kokoko3k · 2019-08-17 14:35:20

Keep in mind that switching tty may leads to graphical corruption, when using nvidia+qt5.

d_fajardo · 2019-08-17 18:57:34

Thanks all. I think I have enough information for now on what I can try to do. It's not a pressing issue since at the moment I'm the only one who can log in to my computer, but I have to think what setup is best.

Arch Linux

#1 2019-08-17 07:55:20

Is there a way to password protect Thunderbird?

#2 2019-08-17 08:17:45

Re: Is there a way to password protect Thunderbird?

#3 2019-08-17 09:06:46

Re: Is there a way to password protect Thunderbird?

#4 2019-08-17 13:04:23

Re: Is there a way to password protect Thunderbird?

#5 2019-08-17 14:13:49

Re: Is there a way to password protect Thunderbird?

#6 2019-08-17 14:18:40

Re: Is there a way to password protect Thunderbird?

#7 2019-08-17 14:35:20

Re: Is there a way to password protect Thunderbird?

#8 2019-08-17 18:57:34

Re: Is there a way to password protect Thunderbird?

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