Howdy – Windows Hello style facial authentication for Linux

by LorenDB • 1 year ago

79 43 1 year ago

Why does it depend on python2…?

Arnavion• 1 year ago

Ask the Fedora maintainer? The README instructions only say Python 3. The OpenSUSE package's specfile only says Python 3, and to be sure I tried installing it and it did not pull in Python 2 packages.

Actually even the Fedora package's specfile only says Python 3, so I'm not sure why the README says that it still needs Python 2.

Edit: Okay, the explanation is in this commit message: https://github.com/boltgolt/howdy/commit/305e42fc79ef38f66c5... . The dep on Python 2 is from Fedora's PAM module package, not from howdy itself. On OpenSUSE the corresponding PAM module package depends on Python 3 already.

aitchnyu• 1 year ago

Last time I tried it, I wished the DM indicated its processing my face and also if it failed, and a button to retry. Also will the model be fooled by an IR photo of my face?

I did have fun opening the IR camera feed and seeing objects of various opacity in visible spectrum behaving differently in IR.

Boltgolt2• 1 year ago

Main dev here: If you're on the 3.0 version you'll be able to install howdy-gtk, which will show a popup at the top of your screen when authenticating.

You can also enable "rubberstamps" which require an action from you like nodding yes to confirm authentication and making it harder to fool. As noted in the readme though, Howdy is never going to be 100% secure

charcircuit• 1 year ago

This isn't "Windows Hello style." This program extracts features from a 2d image instead of doing depth reconstruction first. This makes it easy to fool with a piece of paper.

Also this only handles user authentication unlike on Windows where it can be usedpasskey. disk encryption and for passkeys.

Edit: This program also saves the landmarks of your face into a file in plain text when it gets added.

senectus12• 1 year ago

yeah its more of a taster demo. I wish them luck in developing it properly though... I'm doing an ubuntu MOE for a corp atm and man, I really miss the windows hello logins.

_joel• 1 year ago

Is 'Hello' and those kind of biometrics generally enabled at $CORP? The ones I've gigged at have been the polar opposite of using it, due to regulatroy requirements. Even disabling macos fingerprint reader company-wide, which is prerry darn good imho.

written-beyond• 1 year ago

Really? When I tried on an hp spectre 5 years ago it made the hell sensors make a horrible clicking sounds and the LEDs glow red. I assumed it was doing something with depth analysis.

swores• 1 year ago

The comment you replied to is saying that this new Linux equivalent is only doing 2D, not that the Windows version (which you had on your HP) is only 2D :)

Boltgolt2• 1 year ago

Depth reconstruction with IR cameras in laptops today is incredibly hard. While the camera itself is exposed in Linux as a USB camera, the sync with the IR emitters is completely lost. Because of this we cannot extract a "left" and "right" lit image reliably as Windows hello does

jeroenhd• 1 year ago

FWIW Microsoft's branding team fumbling everything into Windows Hello isn't the project's fault. The "Windows Hello" part that they're trying to find an alternative for was the only "Windows Hello" for a while before Microsoft also decided that all of their TPM operations were now Windows Hello things.

That said, without the depth reconstruction, I do agree that this is nowhere close to Windows Hello's features. That's not the devs' fault (that kind of mostly-secure facial recognition is very hard) but I also don't think the comparison is apt. But who knows, if this project gains popularity, maybe in the future that kind of thing becomes possible.

This is more akin to Android's facial recognition, except for using the IR camera. Which is still acceptable for plenty of people. After all, many fingerprint readers on Linux share similar risks and are often regarded as secure enough. I think the availability of this project, even if it's nowhere near Windows Hello's standards, is a great addition to many Linux desktops, as long as their users understand the limitations.

As for the plaintext, Linux doesn't really have a secure storage mechanism (even the standard secrets API is easy to fool) so obfuscating the facial features doesn't really serve a purpose. As long as your disk is encrypted, I don't think that's a risk (and if it isn't, whoever is looking at your laptop can just browse through your photo albums anyway).

bsimpson• 1 year ago

I know there was extensive testing when face recognition authentication came to smartphones. I wonder how an open source project like this one compares. I suspect there are substantially more false positives/negatives than on a commercially developed version that needs to support everyone to be successful.

e-topy• 1 year ago

Apple's Face ID uses what is essentially a 3D camera, a simple 2D color camera cannot compare to that in terms of accuracy.

lozenge2• 1 year ago

Windows also uses infrared LEDs to light your face and prevent a flat photo from being recognised as a face.

aniviacat• 1 year ago

AFAIK Pixel phones, including the Pixel 9, only use 2D images for face unlock. So it's definitely possible to reach mainstream quality with conventional cameras.

(Unless you'd argue that the face unlock found on Pixels is not passable either)

crowcroft2• 1 year ago

Apple has clearly done a lot of work in this space and have decided to retain Touch ID on Macbooks. I think this is fairly instructive.

thekevan• 1 year ago

"A note on security

This package is in no way as secure as a password and will never be. Although it's harder to fool than normal face recognition, a person who looks similar to you, or a well-printed photo of you could be enough to do it. Howdy is a more quick and convenient way of logging in, not a more secure one.

To minimize the chance of this program being compromised, it's recommended to leave Howdy in /lib/security and to keep it read-only.

DO NOT USE HOWDY AS THE SOLE AUTHENTICATION METHOD FOR YOUR SYSTEM."

joelthelion• 1 year ago

I wish we had good support for fingerprint readers instead.

cyp0633• 1 year ago

I use fprintd and it works well with GNOME + builtin Elan sensor. It indeed needs more complex configuration than Touch ID or Windows Hello though.

mouse_2• 1 year ago

In Fedora it's (supposed to be) pretty simple. Just go into settings -> users and add your fingerprint. In practice I usually have to use dnf to nuke pam and reinstall it manually for it to start working. But they have a good skeleton set up. Still no predesktop authentication, though.

Pwntastic2• 1 year ago

It was relatively easy to setup a yubikey bio fingerprint device in arch with pam-u2f. I just kinda followed the wiki here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Universal_2nd_Factor

It wasn't strictly plug and play, but it only took like 20 minutes of fiddling.

simtel20• 1 year ago

I thought yubikeys only provided a sensor for the fact that the sensor was touched, vs fingerprint resets that actually distinguish whose fingerprint is touching the sensor before being usable as an authenticator

amaccuish• 1 year ago

That, and TPM integrated WebAuthN.

fsateler• 1 year ago

The project seems active, but the last release is from 2020... Why no new releases?

1970-01-01• 1 year ago

The gift of open source strikes yet again.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29736369

ycombinatrix• 1 year ago

Why does it need a new release if it works?

seany• 1 year ago

I wonder what it would take to get an OSS fr model to decent performance on the NIST/iBeta rankings.

mouse_2• 1 year ago

Predesktop authentication is a killer feature. Hope to see it some day.

Howdy – Windows Hello style facial authentication for Linux

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