GUI Scale COSMIC Desktop Applet [AUR]

About

A secure, memory-safe implementation of a Tailscale GUI management applet for the System76 COSMIC desktop environment. This project demonstrates secure systems programming practices while providing essential functionality for Tailscale network (tailnet) management.

Project Overview

The GUI Scale applet provides a user-friendly interface for managing Tailscale configurations within the COSMIC desktop environment. It showcases secure systems programming practices while maintaining high usability standards.

Key Features

• Secure Tailscale network (tailnet) management
• Memory-safe implementation in Rust
  • Utilizes Rust's ownership system for memory-safety operations
  • No unsafe code blocks used
  • All external data properly validated
  • Buffer overflow protection through Rust's bounds checking
• Comprehensive error handling
• Integration with system security policies
  • Proper permission handling for system operations
    • Does not run while the Tailscale operator configuration is set to root.
  • Minimal system privilege requirements
    • Does not run as root

Security Architecture

The applet implements a layered security approach:

1. Privilege Management
   • Minimal required permissions
   • Proper capability isolation
2. Error Handling
   • Uses Rust's built-in error types (Result and Option), as well as return other types, such as String and bool, to test for and handle any errors that occurred during runtime
   • No information leakage

Dependencies

You must first have Tailscale installed and then run: sudo tailscale set --operator=$USER This makes it where the applet doesn't need sudo (root) to do its job.

Screenshots

Installation

Arch Linux

1. Install from AUR: gui-scale-applet 2. Alternatively, use an AUR helper: yay -S gui-scale-applet

Temporary Testing Installation (Arch Linux)

Verify Installation Locally

1. Install the package: pacman -U gui-scale-applet*.pkg.tar.zst
2. Check installation: pacman -Q gui-scale-applet

Fedora/Fedora based distros

sudo dnf copr enable bhh32/gui-scale-applet sudo dnf update --refresh sudo dnf install -y gui-scale-applet

Debian/Ubuntu (including Pop!OS) based Distros

1. Download deb package from releases section.
2. Install manually.

Other

git clone https://github.com/cosmic-utils/gui-scale-applet.git cd gui-scale-applet sudo just install