Howdy for Ubuntu

Windows Hello™ style authentication for Ubuntu. Use your built-in IR emitters and camera in combination with face recognition to prove who you are.

Using the central authentication system in Linux (PAM), this works everywhere you would otherwise need your password: Login, lock screen, sudo, su, etc.

Installation

Run the installer by pasting (ctrl+shift+V) the following command into the terminal:

wget -O /tmp/howdy_install.py https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Boltgolt/howdy/master/installer.py && sudo python3 /tmp/howdy_install.py

This will guide you through the installation. When that's done run howdy add to add a face model for the current user.

If nothing went wrong we should be able to run sudo by just showing your face. Open a new terminal and run sudo -i to see it in action.

Note: The build of dlib can hang on 100% for over a minute, give it time.

Command line

The installer adds a howdy command to manage face models for the current user. Use howdy help to list the available options.

Troubleshooting

Any python errors get logged directly into the console and should indicate what went wrong. If authentication still fails but no errors are printed you could take a look at the last lines in /var/log/auth.log to see if anything has been reported there.

If you encounter an error that hasn't been reported yet, don't be afraid to open a new issue.

A note on security

This script 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 well-printed photo of you could be enough to do it.

To minimize the chance of this script being compromised, it's recommend to leave this repo in /lib/security and to keep it read only.

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