JIMRI/help/en/package/jmri/jmrit/permission/PermissionManager.shtml

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      <span class="since">since 5.9.3</span>
      <h1>Permissions</h1>

      <p><strong>Permissions</strong> is used to protect sensitive parts of JMRI, for example
      preventing the loading and storing of the <em>table content and panels</em> file by
      unauthorized users.</p>

      <ul>
        <li><a href="#settings">Settings</a></li>
        <li><a href="#defaultusers">Default users</a></li>
        <li><a href="#defaultpermissions">Default permissions</a></li>
        <li><a href="#lockedout">I have locked myself out! What do I do?</a></li>
        <li><a href="#securingpreferences">Securing the preferences</a></li>
        <li><a href="#connectionfailure">Connection failure during startup of JMRI</a></li>
        <li><a href="#panelproshutdown">Permission failure during PanelPro shutdown</a></li>
      </ul>

      <h2 id="settings">Settings</h2>

      <p><strong>Edit &rArr; Preferences &rArr; Permissions</strong> has the configuration for the
      permission manager.</p>

      <div style="margin-left: 2em">
        <a href="images/permission-preferences.png"><img src="images/permission-preferences.png"
         alt="permissions preferences dialog"></a>
      </div>

      <h3>Options</h3>
      <dl>
        <dt>Enable permission manager</dt>
          <dd>If selected, the permission manager will be active. You need to restart JMRI for the
          login/logout menu items to be available on the <strong>File</strong> menu. By default, the
          permission manager is disabled.</dd>
          <dd>Enabling the permissions manager will affect all profiles.</dd>

        <dt>Allow empty passwords</dt>
          <dd>If selected, empty passwords are allowed. By default, empty passwords are not allowed.</dd>
      </dl>

      <h2 id="defaultusers">Default users</h2>

      <h3>The current default users are</h3>
      <table>
          <tr><th>User</th><th>Role</th><th>Default Password</th></tr>
          <tr><td>admin</td><td>Administrator</td><td>jmri</td></tr>
          <tr><td>guest</td><td>Guest</td><td>n/a</td></tr>
          <tr><td>remote guest</td><td>Remote guest</td><td>n/a</td></tr>
      </table>
      <p>These three users cannot be deleted. If you don't want to use the <strong>admin</strong> user,
      you can unselect all the roles. It will then not have any permissions at all.</p>

      <p>New users will get the <strong>Standard user</strong> role when created.</p>

      <p>Note that the <strong>guest</strong> and <strong>remote guest</strong> users cannot have a
      password.</p>

      <h2 id="defaultpermissions">Default permissions</h2>
      <h3>The current permissions are</h3>
      <table>
        <tr><th>Permission</th><th>Roles with this permission as standard</th></tr>
        <tr><td>Change user's own password</td><td><strong>Administrator</strong> and <strong>Standard user</strong></td></tr>
        <tr><td>Edit preferences</td><td><strong>Administrator</strong></td></tr>
        <tr><td>Edit permissions</td><td><strong>Administrator</strong></td></tr>

        <tr><td>Edit Added Roster Columns</td><td><strong>Administrator</strong></td></tr>
        <tr><td>Program on Programming Track</td><td><strong>Administrator</strong></td></tr>
        <tr><td>Program on Main</td><td><strong>Administrator</strong></td></tr>

        <tr><td>Load table content and panels file</td><td><strong>Administrator</strong></td></tr>
        <tr><td>Store table content and panels file</td><td><strong>Administrator</strong></td></tr>
      </table>

      <h3><span class="since">since 5.9.5</span>Panels</h3>

      <p>The <strong>Panels</strong> permission can provide control of a set of panel actions.</p>

      <p class="noted">The <strong>Panels</strong> permission is currently applied to all panels.
      Future changes will include the ability assign specific roles to a panel.</p>

      <dl>
        <dt>Default</dt>
        <dd>Not implemented yet.  When selected it defaults to <strong>None</strong></dd>

        <dt>None</dt>
        <dd>Displays a panel with only <strong>Permission denied Login to view the panel</strong>".</dd>

        <dt>View</dt>
        <dd>Displays a panel.  Clicking on the panel will display a <strong>Panel is read only</strong>
        dialog.</dd>

        <dt>View and control</dt>
        <dd>Not implemented yet.  When selected it defaults to <strong>View, control and edit</strong>.</dd>

        <dt>View, control and edit</dt>
        <dd>Full access to the panel.  This is the initial setting for all roles.</dd>

      </dl>

      <h2 id="lockedout">I have locked myself out! What do I do?</h2>

      <p>There are two options.</p>

      <p>The simplest way is to delete the file <strong>.permissions.xml</strong> in the
      PREFERENCES folder. Note: This is the <strong>Settings Location</strong> in <strong>Help &rArr;
      File Locations</strong>.</p>

      <p>By deleting the file, the permission configuration is removed.</p>

      <p>The second option is to edit that file with a text editor or an xml editor. The beginning
      of the file looks like this:</p>

      <pre>
&lt;Permissions&gt;
  &lt;Settings&gt;
    &lt;Enabled&gt;no&lt;/Enabled&gt;
    &lt;AllowEmptyPasswords&gt;no&lt;/AllowEmptyPasswords&gt;
  &lt;/Settings&gt;
  ...
&lt;/Permissions&gt;
      </pre>

      <p>Change <strong>&lt;Enabled&gt;yes&lt;/Enabled&gt;</strong> to
      <strong>&lt;Enabled&gt;no&lt;/Enabled&gt;</strong>.
      It disables permission checking but retains the permission configuration.
      </p>

      <h2 id="securingpreferences">Securing the preferences</h2>

      <p>If an unauthorized user is able to delete or edit files on the computer running
      JMRI, he might be able to disable the permissions and then override them. See the section
      <strong>I have locked myself out!</strong> above.</p>

      <p>If you want to protect from that, you could protect that file from being changed.
      On Linux, it can be done by changing the owner of the file to <strong>root</strong> and to have
      it read only for other users. This assumes that the OS user that runs JMRI does not have OS
      administrative authority.</p>

      <pre>
sudo chown root ~/.jmri/.permissions.xml
sudo chmod 644 ~/.jmri/.permissions.xml
      </pre>

      <p>On Linux the .permissions.xml file can deleted even when write access is denied.  To prevent
      this, the <strong>.jmri</strong> parent directory also needs to be protected.  However, doing
      so can result in JMRI errors.</p>

      <h2 id="connectionfailure">Connection failure during startup of JMRI</h2>

      <p>If JMRI is unable to connect to the layout during startup, a dialog is shown with the options
      <strong>Quit PanelPro</strong>, <strong>Continue</strong> and <strong>Edit connections</strong>.
      If the permission manager is enabled, a user with the Guest role probably doesn't have the permission
      to edit the connections. In this case, select <strong>Continue</strong> to start JMRI. When you
      do, a dialog will open with the message <strong>Permission denied</strong>. Ignore that, log
      in with an authorized user and then open the preferences. Now edit the connection.</p>

      <h2 id="panelproshutdown">Permission failure during PanelPro shutdown</h2>

      <p>The normal PanelPro shutdown process checks for changes that have not been stored.  If
      change detection is enabled, changes have been made and the user is not authorized to store
      changes, a dialog is displayed.</p>

      <div style="margin-left: 2em">
        <a href="images/shutdown-abort.png"><img src="images/shutdown-abort.png"
         alt="abort shutdown question"></a>
      </div>

      <p>If it is possible to login with the necessary authority, then click on <strong>Yes</strong>,
      login and do the store process.  If not, click on <strong>No</strong>.</p>

      <p>For production environments, change detection can be disabled. This will eliminate shutdown
      issues.  See the <a href="../../../apps/TabbedPreferences.shtml#Shutdown">Shutdown</a>
      preference.</p>



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