Ubuntu
scim package

seahorse passphrase dialogs don't accept input

Bug #284044 reported by rekado on 2008-10-15

This bug affects 5 people

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	scim (Ubuntu)	Fix Released	Low	Rolf Leggewie
Nominated for Intrepid by rekado

Bug Description

Binary package hint: seahorse

I ran into a problem (already the second time) in Intrepid Ibex Beta. It is a fresh install and I installed all upgrades. Until recently the problem didn't occur. However, apparently since enabling installation of "proposed updates" the problem is there again.

Using Seahorse - no matter if directly for key management or through the Enigmail extension to Thunderbird when encrypting email - the pass-phrase request dialogue doesn't accept any input. Whenever I want to sign an email or encrypt it, Enigmail will ask for the pass-phrase with a dialogue. I made sure the cursor is in the textfield and typed the correct pass-phrase. However, there is no visual feedback in the dialogue anymore. The Enter key is recognized, though. No matter what I input, the pass-phrase is rejected and a new dialogue pops up stating that the pass-phrase was incorrect. This happens another time again until Seahorse gives up on me.

Same situation without using Thunderbird when directly opening Seahorse and changing settings for a particular key.

I'm sure the pass-phrase is correct. I faced this problem before with an old key. I thought that maybe I just cannot remember the password so I revoked the key and created a new one. Also that didn't work. So I reinstalled Ubuntu from the Intrepid Beta ISO and it worked.

Since installing updates from the "proposed" set some days ago the bug appeared again. At least I assume that there is a connection. I made a simple screencast to demonstrate the odd behaviour which I attached below.

seahorse:
  Installed: 2.24.0-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2.24.0-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
*** 2.24.0-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

seahorse-plugins:
  Installed: 2.24.0-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2.24.0-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
*** 2.24.0-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

I would appreciate any idea that could help fixing this as this renders everything related to encryption totally useless. I'm not sure if this poses a specific security threat but definitely has a big impact on security when you cannot use any keys managed by Seahorse any more.

Revision history for this message

rekado (rekado) wrote on 2008-10-15:

seahorse-bug.gif Edit (1.0 MiB, image/gif)

Revision history for this message

mcmuller (gregor-emtea) wrote on 2008-10-16:

same problem here!

rekado (rekado) on 2008-10-16

Changed in seahorse:
status:	New → Confirmed

Revision history for this message

Fred Senis (fredsenis) wrote on 2008-10-20:

This problem also occurs when using Enigmail or even gpg at the command line :
(sorry french output for gpg)

fs@phloston:~$ gpg -a -s dhcpd.conf

Vous avez besoin d'une phrase de passe pour déverrouiller la
clé secrète pour l'utilisateur: « Frederic Senis (tgv) <email address hidden> »
clé de 1024 bits DSA, ID AC75A04B, créée le 2007-03-18

[HERE POPS OUT THE PASSPHRASE DIALOG in which I supply the valid passphrase]
gpg: Phrase de passe invalide ; réessayez ...

[HERE POPS OUT THE PASSPHRASE DIALOG AGAIN that I exit with ESC]
gpg: problème avec l'agent - arrêt d'utilisation de l'agent

[IT THEN GOES TO SIMPLE COMMAND LINE MODE in which I type the same passphrase]
Entrez la phrase de passe:
[BACK TO PROMPT AND I HAVE MY SIGNED FILE]

Revision history for this message

Václav Šmilauer (eudoxos) wrote on 2008-10-23:

Confirming. As workaround for console-based things, edit ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf and put no-use-agent somewhere (and comment use-agent, if present in the file). That will ask for the password from terminal.

Revision history for this message

Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote on 2008-10-23:

do you use scim or something similar? do you get the bug on a stock installation?

Changed in seahorse:
importance:	Undecided → Low
status:	Confirmed → Incomplete

Revision history for this message

Chow Loong Jin (hyperair) wrote on 2008-10-24: Re: [Bug 284044] Re: seahorse passphrase dialogs don't accept input

On Thu, 2008-10-23 at 21:18 +0000, Sebastien Bacher wrote:
> do you use scim or something similar? do you get the bug on a stock
> installation?
>
> ** Changed in: seahorse (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Undecided => Low
> Status: Confirmed => Incomplete
>
It's a SCIM issue for me. Disabling SCIM, logging out and logging back
in solved the issue.
--
Chow Loong Jin

Revision history for this message

mcmuller (gregor-emtea) wrote on 2008-10-24:

Disabling SCIM through disabling "Input of Complex Characters" in the Language-Setup solved it for me as well.

Revision history for this message

rekado (rekado) wrote on 2008-10-24:

I'm using SCIM for inputting Chinese characters. Disabling it as Chow Loong Jin and mcmuller did solved the issue partly. I still noticed that the prompt for the keyring password does not accept any keyboard input, though. Clicking the buttons is possible. Even though I clicked on "Deny" the passphrase was accepted... I don't understand that.

Revision history for this message

Fred Senis (fredsenis) wrote on 2008-10-24:

Logs tell us that there is indeed a cross problem with SCIM :

> Oct 24 16:06:08 phloston gnome-keyring-daemon[11908]: couldn't parse dialog response from ask tool: Le fichier de clés contient la ligne « /usr/bin/scim » qui n'est ni une paire de valeurs de clé, ni un groupe, ni un commentaire

[translated : The keyring file contains "/usr/bin/scim" which is neither a key-pair, a group or a commentary.]

After a bit of launchpad digging, it may be similar to bug #276159 as the debug output off a manual launch of gnome-keyring-manager or seahorse gives the same output on startup :

>fs@phloston:~$ seahorse
>** Message: init gpgme version 1.1.6
>/usr/bin/scim
>The messenger is now down

Revision history for this message

rekado (rekado) wrote on 2008-10-27:

#10

Why this is set to "Incomplete"? What information do I have to provide?

Revision history for this message

Tormod Volden (tormodvolden) wrote on 2008-11-17:

#11

Is this still a problem in Ubuntu 8.10 final?

Revision history for this message

rekado (rekado) wrote on 2008-11-17:

#12

I just tried since a long time again. It seems to be fixed. Just encrypted an email from within Thunderbird and there was no problem anymore.

Revision history for this message

Tormod Volden (tormodvolden) wrote on 2008-11-18:

#13

Thanks, I'll close the bug report.

Changed in seahorse:
status:	Incomplete → Fix Released

Revision history for this message

Chow Loong Jin (hyperair) wrote on 2008-11-18:

#14

On Tue, 2008-11-18 at 08:32 +0000, Tormod Volden wrote:
> Thanks, I'll close the bug report.
>
> ** Changed in: seahorse (Ubuntu)
> Status: Incomplete => Fix Released
>
It's not fixed yet. This bug only affects systems which are configured
to use scim. If you don't use scim, you won't see this bug.

status confirmed
--
Chow Loong Jin

Changed in seahorse:
status:	Fix Released → Confirmed

Revision history for this message

rekado (rekado) wrote on 2008-11-18:

#15

I'm so sorry for the confusion. Chow Loong Jin is right. I noticed just now that I permanently disabled SCIM just for working around this bug.
Using SCIM the bug remains.

Revision history for this message

Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote on 2009-02-12:

#16

the issue is specific to scim apparently reassigning the bug

Revision history for this message

Tanguy Herrmann (dolanor) wrote on 2009-02-15:

#17

This thing is bugging me too... Can't use seahorse at all, and I don't know how to configure gpg-agent to get input from terminal...

Marc Deslauriers (mdeslaur) on 2009-04-10

security vulnerability:

yes → no

Revision history for this message

Rolf Leggewie (r0lf) wrote on 2009-07-21:

#18

Thank you for reporting. I think this may be fixed in 1.4.9 which is about to be released in Karmic. Please verify.

https://launchpad.net/~r0lf/+archive/hardy/+sourcepub/678492/+listing-archive-extra

Changed in scim (Ubuntu):
assignee:	nobody → Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)

Revision history for this message

Rolf Leggewie (r0lf) wrote on 2010-01-18:

#19

without further information, I will assume this is fixed. please reopen if you still have problems.

Changed in scim (Ubuntu):
status:	Confirmed → Fix Released

Revision history for this message

barticle (barticle) wrote on 2010-03-17:

#20

I gave Seahorse 2.28.1. It seems to do nothing whatever. When I type in a password that I want to save and click on Add, nothing happens. If I re-open the window it's still blank. Totally useless.

Revision history for this message

Rolf Leggewie (r0lf) wrote on 2010-03-17:

#21

barticle, sorry to hear. I think it's best for you to open a ticket of your own. Please call "ubuntu-bug seahorse" from the command-line. Thank you.