[JDEV] change of password / caching problems in jabberd

Wed Dec 4 20:10:05 CST 2002

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 Hi all,

The thread below (please read bottom-up) tracks a recent jadmin discussion

on a problem a number of us have encountered: when user auto-registration is

turned off, the jabberd server seems to cache old passwords after users

change them.

The thread ran out of gas, with a few unanswered questions.

1) How / why does the password caching work?. I haven't found anything on

change-of-password in the protocol / JEP / design docs I've looked through.

2.) Where's the right place for me to submit a bug / feature request --

against jabberd 1.4.2 (if maintenance work continues there) or 2.0, or

someplace else?

Thanks,

Tim

-----Original Message-----

From: jadmin-admin at jabber.org [mailto:jadmin-admin at jabber.org]On Behalf

Of Ralph Siemsen

Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2002 2:19 AM

To: jadmin at jabber.org

Subject: Re: [jadmin] not allowing auto registration - no password

change

Tim Klem wrote:

> After step 3, if I then insert a step 3.5 and immediately revert to the

old

> password, it succeeds. Following this, the new-password login in step 4

> fails, and I'm back to step 2 -- I can only log in with the old password

> until the cache expires (???), and can't make it to step 4. So it seems

like

> the step 3 "priming the pump" gets clobbered somehow.

Yes, confirmed here as well.

> Does anyone know how the caching works?

I've stared at the code and read all the docs I could find but haven't

been able to figure out why it behaves this way.

-R

-----Origi

nal Message-----

From: jadmin-admin at jabber.org [mailto:jadmin-admin at jabber.org]On Behalf

Of Tim Klem

Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 12:16 AM

To: jadmin at jabber.org

Subject: RE: [jadmin] not allowing auto registration - no password

change

Ralph Siemsen wrote:

> So the sequence appears to be:

> 1) Change your password

> 2) You can continue to login with you old password

> 3) Try logging in with n

ew password (or random gabage) - will fail

> 4) Log in with new password - now the password change is complete.

Thanks Ralph, that helps. If I follow your 4 steps, I have the same

experience. One additional data point to add:

After step 3, if I then insert a step 3.5 and immediately revert to the old

password, it succeeds. Following this, the new-password login in step 4

fails, and I'm back to step 2 -- I can only log in with the old password

until the cache expires (???), and can't make it to step 4. So it seems like

the step 3 "priming the pump" gets clobbered somehow.

Does anyone know how the caching works?

Thanks,

Tim

-----Original Message-----

From: jadmin-admin at jabber.org [mailto:jadmin-admin at jabber.org]On Behalf

Of Ralph Siemsen

Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 10:21 PM

To: jadmin at jabber.org

Subject: Re: [jadmin] not allowing auto registration - no password

change

Tim Klem wrote:

> My setup does have some peculiarities, though:

> - The server seems to take a while to begin using the new password, so a

> user who changes password,

>   logs out, and logs right back in still must use the old one. By "a

while"

> I mean many minutes.

>   If I restart jabberd, the new one must be used. Dunno what's being

cached

> where. ???

I noticed this problem as well with a variety of clients (Exodus,

Gabber, JIM, ...).  After some investigation I found a few more

interesting facts, though I haven't got a good solution:

* When 0k authentication is used, password changes take effect

immediately and work exactly as you would expect.

* When 0k is removed from the available authentication methods on the

server, all clients exhibit the password-change-delay problem.

Moreover, the delay seems to be more of a cache issue.  It appears that

the old password remains valid until an unsuccessful login attempt is

made (be it with the new password, or a totally incorrect on).  At that

time, the server appears to start using the new password.  Subsequently,

the new password works and the old one stops working.

So the sequence appears to be:

1) Change your password

2) You can continue to login with you old password

3) Try logging in with new password (or random gabage) - will fail

4) Log in with new password - now the password change is complete.

-Ralph

-----Original Message-----

From: jadmin-admin at jabber.org [mailto:jadmin-admin at jabber.org]On Behalf

Of Dushyanth Harinath

Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 11:

41 AM

To: jadmin at jabber.org

Subject: Re: [jadmin] not allowing auto registration - no password

change

Hi ,

 * <timklem at yahoo.com> wrote from a remote bunker :

> My setup does have some peculiarities, though:

> - The server seems to take a while to begin using the new password, so a

> user who changes password,

>   logs out, and logs right back in still must use the old one. By "a

while"

> I mean many minutes.

>   If I restart jabberd, the new one must be used. Dunno what's being

cached

> where. ???

This happens with me too. I have only mod_auth_plain enabled,

mod_register & register notify turned off, timeout set to 0 in xdb and

using jcac to create accounts.

> - Using Exodus 0.7.0.4, the password change gets made; however, it always

> gives an error

>   message "Error changing password".

Same here. happens with tkabber-0.98beta too.

> Not exactly ideal!  =)

Yeah.

cheers

dushyanth

-----Original Message-----

From: jadmin-admin at jabber.org [mailto:jadmin-admin at jabber.org]On Behalf

Of Tim Klem

Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 10:46 AM

To: jadmin at jabber.org

Subject: RE: [jadmin] not allowing auto registration - no password

change

Hi Alan,

In my setup, auto-register is off, but users can change passwords. In

jabber.xml, I've left the jabber:iq:register module in, and just commented

out the register option.

I'm storing the passwords in a MySQL database, and I see the passwords

updated there immediately after the client issues the command. (I've also

hacked my xdb_sql.xml to ensure that no a

ccounts can get created via

jabberd.)

My setup does have some peculiarities, though:

- The server seems to take a while to begin using the new password, so a

user who changes password,

  logs out, and logs right back 

in still must use the old one. By "a while"

I mean many minutes.

  If I restart jabberd, the new one must be used. Dunno what's being cac

hed

where. ???

- Using Exodus 0.7.0.4, the password change gets made; however, it always

gives an error

  message "Error changing password".

- Using Psi 0.8.7, the change also gets made; the error here reads "There

was an error when trying

  to set the password. Not found."

Not exactly ideal!  =)

Tim

-----Original Message-----

From: jadmin-admin at jabber.org [mailto:jadmin-admin at jabber.org]On Behalf

Of Peter Saint-Andre

Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 7:02 AM

To: jadmin at jabber.org

Subject: Re: [jadmin] not allowing auto registration - no password

change

Nope, they can't because you've commented out the code that handles the

jababer:iq:register namespace. Hmm, hadn't thought of that before...

Peter

--

Peter Saint-Andre

Jabber Software Foundation

http://www.jabber.org/people/stpeter.php

On Wed, 20 Nov 2002, Alan B wrote:

> I asked this before but it seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle of

other

> issues I was addressing so I will try again...

>

> If you shut off auto registration and manually create users is there

anyway

> a user can change their password? It appears they can not.

>

> Thanks,

> Alan

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