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.
Run the installer by pasting (ctrl+shift+V) the following commands into the terminal one at a time:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:boltgolt/howdy
sudo apt update
sudo apt install howdy
Note: The build of dlib can hang on 100% for over a minute, give it time.
This will guide you through the installation. When that's done run sudo howdy add to add a face model.
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.
If you're curious you can run sudo howdy config to open the central config file and see the options Howdy has.
The installer adds a howdy command to manage face models for the current user. Use howdy --help or man howdy to list the available options.
Usage:
howdy [-U user] [-y] command [argument]
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
add |
Add a new face model for an user |
clear |
Remove all face models for an user |
config |
Open the config file in gedit |
disable |
Disable or enable howdy |
list |
List all saved face models for an user |
remove |
Remove a specific model for an user |
test |
Test the camera and recognition methods |
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.
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 program being compromised, it's recommend to leave Howdy in /lib/security and to keep it read only.
DO NOT USE HOWDY AS THE SOLE AUTHENTICATION METHOD FOR YOUR SYSTEM.