How to Regain Control of the Desktop's Current Focus

The “Secure Attention” key combination can be used to break a pointer grab or a keyboard grab by an untrusted application. The key combination can also be used to verify if a pointer or a keyboard has been grabbed by a trusted application. On a multiheaded system that has been spoofed to display more than one trusted stripe, this key combination warps the pointer to the authorized trusted stripe.

1. To regain control of a Sun keyboard, use the following key combination.

   Press the keys simultaneously to regain control of the current desktop focus. On the Sun keyboard, the diamond is the Meta key.

   <Meta> <Stop>

   If the grab, such as a pointer, is not trusted, the pointer moves to the stripe. A trusted pointer does not move to the trusted stripe.

2. If you are not using a Sun keyboard, use the following key combination.

   <Alt> <Break>

   Press the keys simultaneously to regain control of the current desktop focus on your laptop.

Example 11–3 Testing If the Password Prompt Can Be Trusted

On an x86 system that is using a Sun keyboard, the user has been prompted for a password. The cursor has been grabbed, and is in the password dialog box. To check that the prompt is trusted, the user presses the <Meta> <Stop> keys simultaneously. When the pointer remains in the dialog box, the user knows that the password prompt is trusted.

If the pointer had moved to the trusted stripe, the user would know that the password prompt could not be trusted, and contact the administrator.

Example 11–4 Forcing the Pointer to the Trusted Stripe

In this example, a user is not running any trusted processes but cannot see the mouse pointer. To bring the pointer to the center of the trusted stripe, the user presses the <Meta> <Stop> keys simultaneously.