iTalc keys

Introduction

iTalc works by using a private/public key system.

Both private and public keys should be generated on the master machine, then the public keys should be copied to the clients.

That's done by installing the master computer, then copying /etc/italc/keys/public to all the clients.

Please remember that anyone who has access to one of the private keys will be able to control all the clients who have the matching public key.

My Edubuntu system used to work! After an update it no longer does!

• A security update (CVE-2011-0724) released in February 2011 fixes a serious security problem in Edubuntu.

• This update will cause affected iTalc systems to no longer function.
• The update will automatically generate new private keys, however, it won't be able to automatically copy the new public keys to the client machines.
• If your iTalc clients stop functioning after the security upgrade, you will have to copy the contents of /etc/italc/keys/public to the same location on your client machines, here is an example of how you could do this:
  • On the client, make a backup of your old public keys by issuing the following command in a terminal:
    • sudo mv /etc/italc/keys/public /etc/italc/keys/public.bak
  • Note: You may substitute the following step by copying the keys via any means you like, such as USB disk or your favourite configuration manager
  • Assuming you have an ssh server installed on your iTalc server, copy the files from the server to the client, substituting SERVER with your server's hostname or IP address and USER with a username that exists on the remote system:

    • sudo scp -r USER@SERVER:/etc/italc/keys/public /etc/italc/keys/

  • Users will have to log out and back in for the changes to take effect

If you have any further questions or concerns, feel free to contact the Edubuntu community via IRC, mailing list or webform at http://edubuntu.org/community