Bug 1047077 - With a fingerprint reader device, GDM always reports failed attempts when logging in with password
Summary: With a fingerprint reader device, GDM always reports failed attempts when log...
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED EOL
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: gdm
Version: 22
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Unspecified
unspecified
unspecified
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Ray Strode [halfline]
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2013-12-28 21:01 UTC by Robert Marcano
Modified: 2016-07-19 10:50 UTC (History)
8 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2016-07-19 10:50:15 UTC
Type: Bug
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)
last and lastb output (820 bytes, application/force-download)
2013-12-28 21:01 UTC, Robert Marcano
no flags Details
Portion of audit.log (3.50 KB, text/plain)
2013-12-29 20:50 UTC, Robert Marcano
no flags Details

Description Robert Marcano 2013-12-28 21:01:09 UTC
Created attachment 842768 [details]
last and lastb output

After a clean Fedora 20 install and updates applied, GDM always show failed attempts, even when the user is using the correct password. Initially this was happening with VTs logins, but after running "authconfig --updateall" like on Bug 1021108 the VTs part was fixed.

"authconfig --updateall" locked but regenerated the files, See Bug 1047076

The GDM message still appears, to fast to be noticed, but it shows. After removing wtmp, btmp and lastlog and reboot, logged in a few times using GDM and lastb shows failed logins, all log ins where successful. See attached last and lastb output. Looks like every successful GDM login is adding a failed loging to btmp

Comment 1 Robert Marcano 2013-12-29 20:50:04 UTC
Created attachment 843171 [details]
Portion of audit.log

The failure is recorded before the success PAM authentication, watching the output of lastb, the failure login is added when I select my user on gdm, but without entering the password, waiting on the password prompt, the failure is recorded.

I compared all pam.d files with another installation that doesn't shows this behaviour and all files are the same. I disable fingerprint authentication on authconfig testing if it is related, that doesn't workaround anything (I don't use the fingerprint reader)

Comment 2 Robert Marcano 2013-12-30 00:36:31 UTC
Finally it is fingerprint reader related, authconfig doesn't entirely disable fingerprint on gdm. I disabled it using dconf, in a new file: /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/99-local

[org/gnome/login-screen]
enable-fingerprint-authentication=false

then running "dconf update"

This way the problematic fingerprint code is not triggered, no login failures are logged when I select my user

Package versions:

fprintd-0.5.1-1.fc20.x86_64
fprintd-pam-0.5.1-1.fc20.x86_64
gdm-3.10.0.1-1.fc20.x86_64
gdm-libs-3.10.0.1-1.fc20.x86_64
libfprint-0.5.1-1.fc20.x86_64

Fingerprint reader device:

Bus 004 Device 002: ID 08ff:2810 AuthenTec, Inc. AES2810

No fingerprint enrolled, I don't use it. Now, I don't know if this happens on all devices with a supported fingerprint reader or it is only on my specific device. Another ThinkPad with an unsupported reader does not trigger this bug, probably because of it non being supported

Comment 3 Michael Reiger 2014-02-13 13:02:34 UTC
It seems I was having the same bug, and the workaround from comment 2 works for me too.

The machine here is a Thinkpad X230, the fingerprint reader is:
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 147e:2020 Upek TouchChip Fingerprint Coprocessor (WBF advanced mode)


I can live with the workaround; is there a better way to handle an unused fingerprint reader though, so that there are no bogus failed attempts that confuse people?

Comment 4 David Batson 2014-04-02 09:52:31 UTC
Same issue here. ThinkPad X220. Workaround from Comment 2 works here as well.

Comment 5 Michael Reiger 2014-04-02 10:33:55 UTC
(In reply to Michael Reiger from comment #3)
> It seems I was having the same bug, and the workaround from comment 2 works
> for me too.

This was only half the fix, as it turns out: I still had failed login counts correlated to the number of times I unlocked the screen saver.

The following completed the workaround for me:
I installed dconf-editor and disabled fingerprint authentication not only on a system level (see above) but also in my own user session: In dconf-editor I navigated to Org - Gnome - login-screen and unchecked the enable-fingerprint-authentication check box.

(Of course this needs to be done with every user on the machine and is therefore a real pain if there is more than one user.)

Comment 6 Ray Strode [halfline] 2014-04-02 16:58:52 UTC
does removing

session include postlogin

from /etc/pam.d/gdm-fingerprint

make the problem go away?

Comment 7 David Batson 2014-04-03 09:08:18 UTC
After applying the workaround in Comment 2 I found I was still getting some false failed login messages as Michael Reiger stated in Comment 5 . It appears that adding the additional step of Comment 6 did make the problem go away. I did not try using dconf-editor, as I don't have an internet connection atm to install it.

Comment 8 T Sue-Ako 2014-08-25 19:16:15 UTC
Re: comment 6.  removing the line from /etc/pam.d/gdm-fingerprint does not make the problem go away.  Using Thinkpad X220 w all normal F20 updates.

Comment 9 Jean-François Fortin Tam 2014-11-14 04:12:48 UTC
Oh man, and I thought I was getting bruteforced or something.

I have a Lenovo USB keyboard with a fingerprint reader (0483:2016 STMicroelectronics Fingerprint Reader) that I'm not using.

Indeed, just by locking and unlocking my screen with my password, a new entry immediately appears in "lastb".

"postlogin" is not present in my /etc/pam.d/gdm-fingerprint file. Here are its contents (didn't touch anything except remove blank lines):

auth        substack	  fingerprint-auth
account     required	  pam_nologin.so
account     include	  fingerprint-auth
password    include	  fingerprint-auth
session     required	  pam_selinux.so close
session     required	  pam_loginuid.so
session     optional	  pam_console.so
-session    optional    pam_ck_connector.so
session     required	  pam_selinux.so open
session     optional	  pam_keyinit.so force revoke
session     required	  pam_namespace.so
session     include	  fingerprint-auth

Comment 10 Ray Strode [halfline] 2014-11-17 20:47:55 UTC
I believe this is caused by this code:

static void•
on_authenticate_cb (GdmDBusWorker *proxy,•
                    GAsyncResult  *res,•
                    gpointer       user_data)•
{•
...
        worked = gdm_dbus_worker_call_authenticate_finish (proxy, res, &error);•
•
...
        if (worked) {•
...
        } else {•
                gdm_session_record_failed (conversation->worker_pid,•
                                           self->priv->selected_user,•
                                           self->priv->display_hostname,•
                                           self->priv->display_name,•
                                           self->priv->display_device);•
•
...
        }•
}•

Basically we call into pam_fprintd and it fails authentication because the user doesn't have enrolled fingerprints.  Since authentication failed, we record a btmp entry.

possible fixes:

1) check if a user has enrolled fingerprints from gnome-shell before initiating a fingerprint authentication

2) potentially look at different error codes coming from PAM in GDM and only write btmp for certain types of authentication failures.

Comment 11 Fedora End Of Life 2015-05-29 10:12:37 UTC
This message is a reminder that Fedora 20 is nearing its end of life.
Approximately 4 (four) weeks from now Fedora will stop maintaining
and issuing updates for Fedora 20. It is Fedora's policy to close all
bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained. At that time
this bug will be closed as EOL if it remains open with a Fedora  'version'
of '20'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version' 
to a later Fedora version.

Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we were not 
able to fix it before Fedora 20 is end of life. If you would still like 
to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version 
of Fedora, you are encouraged  change the 'version' to a later Fedora 
version prior this bug is closed as described in the policy above.

Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's 
lifetime, sometimes those efforts are overtaken by events. Often a 
more recent Fedora release includes newer upstream software that fixes 
bugs or makes them obsolete.

Comment 12 Martin Garton 2015-05-29 21:23:51 UTC
This still happens in F22

Comment 13 Fedora End Of Life 2016-07-19 10:50:15 UTC
Fedora 22 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2016-07-19. Fedora 22 is
no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further
security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug.

If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of
Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. If you
are unable to reopen this bug, please file a new report against the
current release. If you experience problems, please add a comment to this
bug.

Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.


Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.