[Xfce-bugs] [Bug 16613] New: Support timeout while copying to clipboard

bugzilla-daemon at xfce.org bugzilla-daemon at xfce.org
Mon Mar 30 22:16:47 CEST 2020


https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16613

            Bug ID: 16613
           Summary: Support timeout while copying to clipboard
    Classification: Xfce Core
           Product: Xfce4-settings
           Version: 4.15.0
          Hardware: All
                OS: Linux
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: Medium
         Component: Clipboard Manager
          Assignee: xfce-bugs at xfce.org
          Reporter: volkan.yazici at gmail.com
                CC: bluesabre at xfce.org, ochosi at xfce.org
  Target Milestone: Xfce 4.14

Created attachment 9659
  --> https://bugzilla.xfce.org/attachment.cgi?id=9659&action=edit
The copyq script used.

I'd like to have an option to copy content into the clipboard with a certain
timeout, when reached will "securely" wipe out the copied content and the
associated clipboard history entry with it. This is a pretty common practice
with password managers:

1. You browse to gmail.com and type your e-mail address.
2. You open your password manager, type there your primary password, and click
on the "gmail" entry account to get its password copied into the clipboard with
a, say, 30s timeout.
3. You go back to your browser and type CTRL+V.
4. After 30s, the copied content gets wiped out and cleared from the history.

To provide a tangible example, my password manager of choice is `pass`
(https://www.passwordstore.org/) which also happens to have a pretty popular Go
implementation too (https://www.gopass.pw/). Via `pass`, I can easily paste my
gmail password into the clipboard:

$ pass copy gmail

The problem is that the copied password will stay there until some other
content overrides it. Worse, it will be kept in your clipboard history. In an
ideal world, one would rather have it wiped out in a matter of seconds. To work
around the problem, I use `copyq` (https://hluk.github.io/CopyQ/) as my
clipboard manager and configure `pass` to leverage it while copying content
into the clipboard. Thanks to `copyq`s extensible scripting support, I use a
script to inject the content into the clipboard with a certain timeout:
`pass-extension-copyq` (https://github.com/vy/pass-extension-copyq). While this
serves my purpose, 1) it is not secure (memory area is not wiped out) and 2)
requires manual plumbing for something which I think should be shipped as a
feature by the default clipboard governance.

I am not certain whether this is an Xfce problem or a xclip one, or both.
Nevertheless, I'd like to see it working in Xfce -- hence this bug report on
Xfce board. If anybody would want to pick this up, in addition to being deeply
appreciated, I can fund that brave soul too. (Please e-mail me for the details
on bounty.)

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