## Passwords

### Introduction

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.

Privileged actions such as those described above can only be carried out by `root` 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.

The options in this module do not affect the behavior of passwords in other programs such as &kmail;.

### Use

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 * 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.

If you work in a reasonably secure environment, you can check the option labeled Remember Passwords, and then choose a time period in minutes using the spinner labeled Timeout. (You can either type a number between 5 and 1200 minutes, or use the arrows on the spinner.)

If the Remember passwords option has been selected, kdesu 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.

You should avoid selecting the Remember passwords 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.