On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 20:23, Sergiu Dumitriu <sergiu(a)xwiki.com> wrote:
  On 05/03/2010 04:34 PM, Denis Gervalle wrote:
  Hi devs,
 I would like to fix the current inconsistencies in the way the change
 password feature is implemented.
 Actually, to be able to change a password, you need to be able to save 
 the
  document storing the XWikiUsers XObject. So edit
right on the user 
 profile
  is just what you require, but, if you want to use
the "change password"
 feature implemented in passwd.vm, you need:
   - either being on your own profile or having global (!) admin right, 
 just
  to see the "Change password" button
   - either being on your own profile or having (local) admin right on 
 this
  profile, just to be able to use passwd.vm
 This seems to me really inconsistant, since these protections implemented 
 in
  the UI part are either annoying or a false
impression of security.
 So, I propose to simplify this by only checking the real requirements, 
 which
  means only checking edit right on the user
document ?
 WDYT ? 
 I don't like it so much. Even if the change is possible for random
 users, I wouldn't like them to see a big "change this user's password"
 button when looking at my profile. Most users of a wiki don't know how
 to change a password through the object editor, but they do know how to
 click on a link.
 It's not about security, it's about ease of access to this dangerous
 feature. 
My users, those with extended rights (but not global admin right which is a
dangerous feature), call this one a useful feature, since their user, that
are even more ignorant of computer, always forget their passwords. Due to
XWIKI-4998 and also their misunderstanding of computers, their users does
not found or cannot use the forget password feature and call them. So for me
this is a feature, but I agree, we should change the button label to clearly
state that it change this user password.
  Anyway, in most wikis only the owner and the admins
have edit right on a
 profile, so it's the same thing in the end.
 +1 for fixing the inconsistency in local/global admin rights.
 
If you talk about setting it to local admin right (in place of edit as I
propose), I would agree since I can provide admin right on user profile to
these extended users, but this introduce additional issues:
 - the current right editor does not display admin right anymore on
documents
 - we should also secure the same change password in the object editor by
also checking admin right
This is why I have proposed edit right to be checked, and consider that a
use case where the a user can change the name of another one but not its
password is really unusual.
Anyway, this change would deserve a clear explanation in the release note.
Denis
--
Denis Gervalle
SOFTEC sa - CEO
eGuilde sarl - CTO