Administrator log in assumed by lite-* admin. tools

[ralphy]

Now while applications like 'Install/Remove Software' and 'Users and Groups' correctly prompt for the password of the administrator log in even when logged in as a desktop user (they seem to be able to automatically deduce this somehow!)

The applications you mentioned use pkexec while lite-* use gksu/do. gksudo locks the keyboard, mouse, and focus when asking for a password, pkexec doesn't. In both cases the keystrokes are sniffable though since they both use the same "desktop GUI security".

I can however run lite-* admin. programs from a terminal as a desktop user, logging in as administrator with 'su -l <admin. user>' in the first instance, however it does leave the password exposed to key loggers (although running xterm selecting the 'Secure Keyboard' option is a way around this).

You answered your own question I believe ; temporarily use xterm "Secure Keyboard" if you need the extra privacy between your Terminal and the keybord to type the password.

For an introductory OS such as Linux Lite the options are there. Standard users accounts can run some tweaks without privileges since they do not require higher permissions. For administrators, run under an admin account, else elevate yourself from a Terminal and get the job done.