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<authorgroup>
<author>&Krishna.Tateneni; &Krishna.Tateneni.mail;</author>
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</authorgroup>

<date>2003-10-16</date>
<releaseinfo>3.2</releaseinfo>

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

</articleinfo>
<sect1 id="passwords">

<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 <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> 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 &kmail;.</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>

</sect1>
</article>