GUI Scale COSMIC Desktop Applet

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 capabilitiy 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

From GitHub Release

1. Download the gui-scale-applet.flatpak bundle from the Releases page.

2. Install the required runtime dependency:

flatpak install --user flathub org.freedesktop.Platform//24.08

3. Install the flatpak bundle:

flatpak install --user gui-scale-applet.flatpak

Build from Source

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/cosmic-utils/gui-scale-applet.git
cd gui-scale-applet
git checkout flatpak

2. Build and install:

just install-local

Or to create a distributable bundle:

just bundle

Uninstall

flatpak uninstall --user com.bhh32.gui-scale-applet