Is it possible to set a password/code for individual applications in desktop Linux? I'm using Mint 22.

Posted by Lapis_Wolf@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 16 comments

Basically like how some Android launchers allow you to hide or lock certain apps to prevent just anyone from finding or accessing your apps and files (my current phone natively lets me do both). What I have in mind is a prompt to enter the password when trying to open the app regardless of the DE or distro used, but I don't know if anything like that exists. I tried looking in the browser and YouTube, but I got nothing useful or even related.

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jet_heller@reddit

If they have access to your account, you can't possibly prevent them from free m seeing the data. Give them their own account with their own password and they will only have their own data.

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Lapis_Wolf@reddit (OP)

Not sure if that would work since sometimes others may have to do something that requires being in my user. A separate user account wouldn't help if for example, my father (who is more experienced with Linux) is trying to help me with something in my computer.

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jet_heller@reddit

Then you've set things up wrong. Change it so they don't have to be your user.

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Lapis_Wolf@reddit (OP)

Like a separate user? If that's what you mean, I'm usually the only person using the computer everyday unless it's someone like my dad helping me fix something going on with my own user account, which a guest account may not be helpful though (although a guest may be useful for my little cousin if he wants to play Luanti which he sees as Minecraft).

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frank-sarno@reddit

Interesting. There may be a few ways. One could be to use an encrypted FUSE filesystem that mounts with a script. The backing storage could be a file. A shell script would prompt for the password, mount the filesytem and launch the actual app from it. When the app exits, the filesystem is automatically unmounted.

Another approach may be to use an encrypted podman container. Similar to above, except that the password unlocks the image and the binary runs from the container.

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