Sign-in and the spare key

A box has one password and one spare key.

The password

The password set in the wizard is the owner's password for LosOS cloud. It also unlocks the admin pages: when you open them, a dialog titled Unlock this box asks for it, and the box checks it with LosOS cloud over its own loopback connection. The box keeps no second copy, so changing the password inside LosOS cloud (Settings → Personal → Security) changes it for the admin pages too, at once.

A new password needs at least 12 characters, a lower-case letter, an upper-case letter, a digit and a symbol. A password set before that rule existed still signs in.

The tab stays unlocked until it is closed. Ten wrong attempts from one computer lock that computer out for a growing while (one second, doubling, up to five minutes).

The spare admin key

The admin pages are really unlocked by a 64-character key that the box minted on its first start. The password is a way of obtaining it. That key was shown once, in the wizard after the password was set, with Copy and Print buttons. It is the spare, for the one case the password cannot cover: LosOS cloud not running, so nothing can check the password. The unlock dialog then says so and offers Use the spare admin key instead.

Keep the printed sheet away from the box. Anyone with the key can change every setting, which is as much as root. There is no way to see it again or to rotate it from the box, because the box has no shell. Losing the password and the spare key means reinstalling from the stick, which wipes the disk.

Passkeys

On an HTTPS connection (after the certificate is installed), the wizard and LosOS cloud offer a passkey, so a phone or laptop signs in with its own unlock instead of the password. A passkey is a convenience, not a second spare: it is checked by LosOS cloud like the password.

The claim window

A fresh box has no owner. The first browser on the LAN to finish the wizard becomes the owner and the window closes. That is why the first run should be done soon after the install, on a network you trust. Nothing outside the LAN can claim a box, and a box cannot be re-claimed without a reinstall.