Mandrake Security MNF help

[Guest Kilguard]

I have installed the MNF without any issues, but when I go to logon with the web browser, I get this error:

 

No session found : Cookies not found

 

I have turn on accept all cookies in my IE browser. Does anyone know what this is and how to fix it?

[Guest Kilguard]

Found the problem. It doesn't like the IE browser. Was able to login with Netscape or Mozilla.

[johnnyv]

Thats not a problem, thats just good taste

[paul]

its feature of MNF not a bug :P

[red]

Is there any workaround or way to utilize this "feature" for those of us with "different" tastes?

 

RED

[paul]

get mozilla or pheonix or k-meleon for windows ....

[red]

Ok I got IE 6 to work as an admin browser for MNF9

 

Open IE>Tools>Internet Options>Privacy>Advanced Button

 

Place a check in Override Automatic cookie handling and set the options under to "Accept" or Prompt".

 

Obviously, if "Accept" is checked, youaccept all cookies, if "Prompt" is selected you will have to accept cookies as they com in.

 

Good Luck

 

RED

 

BTW....I finally got my MNF system running as expected...Man what a job!! but it is looking pretty good so far.

[odessit]

thanks guys & gals, answered my question as well.

Happy New one!

[Windependent]

I have installed the MNF without any issues, but when I go to logon with the web browser, I get this error:

 

No session found : Cookies not found

 

I have turn on accept all cookies in my IE browser.  Does anyone know what this is and how to fix it?

Funny, I’ve just run into the exact same problem and it doesn’t seem to be an IE-specific “feature” of MNF. The same problem comes up on a fresh installation of MNF when used in conjunction with a fresh installation of 9.2.

 

I’ve just installed each system on a pair of PCs. Upon completion of the MNF installation, MNF prompted me to create 3 user accounts: root, Admin, and a regular user account, which I optionally gave SU capabilities. Immediately after creating these accounts, I was instructed to log on to the administrator’s web interface from another local machine behind the firewall. So I walked over to the freshly configured installation of 9.2 that was running the KDE GUI 3.1.3 with Konqueror 3.1.4 as the browser.

 

Using the web administration tool, I could not log onto the root account. I could also not log onto my user account. On the 5th attempt I was able to log onto the Admin account. I proceeded with configuration of the firewall without any apparent problems.

 

About a half-hour later I tried logging back onto the web administrative tool from the same Mandrake 9.2 workstation running Konqueror. I could not log back onto the interface, and each attempt at authentication failed with the same “Session Not Found : No Cookies Found” error.

 

I have verified that the cookies from the MNF server are actually on the disk. I’ve tried deleting them, and toggling the installation of cookies within the browser back and forth with no favorable results. Nothing that I can do at the client side seems to work.

 

Fwiw, I’ve tried performing the same steps from a Win98 Client using IE 5.5 with cookies enabled and I get the same results.

 

This definitely seems to be a problem with MNF, or as I like to call it, MFNF.

[red]

I have used MNF for over a year now and accessed it from an XP machine using IE6. All you have to do is make sure you are accepting cookies.

 

Two other things:

 

1. You cannot log in the web interface as root or the other account you created at startup, those are for aconsole access. You MUST use the admin account.

 

2. The MNF system is very much time sensitive regarding logins. If your MNF system time is more than 1 hour off from the time of the system you are trying to access it from, it will display the same "cookies not found" message and refuse to let you in.

 

I found both of these "features" the hard way, but could not be happier with the capability of MNF.

 

Good Luck!

 

RED

[Windependent]

Red, thanks for your help. I'm not sure if you've seen my other posts or not, but in my original post on this topic (before I discovered your posts) I had mentioned that I thought that logon restrictions preventing a remote logon as root seemed like a good idea. I'm glad to hear that MNF seems to be designed in a way that makes sense.

 

Regarding your two other explanations, I am certain that the presence of cookies is not the problem, as I'm not having any luck logging on from ANY of my machines on the LAN, in spite of the fact that they're regularly used for cookie-enabled web surfing.

 

The idea about system times is interesting. Although I'm sure that I've reset the system time on these machines in the past few days, I'm not sure whether or not one of the machines may have the hardware system clock set to GMT, with the OS updating the software clock to local (central) time. I had thought that I had configured all of the hardware clocks to be set to local time, but now I remember that in the MNF setup, I wasn't asked about my local time zone -- I was only asked about my country location. For all I know, MNF could be assuming that its hardware is in the Eastern time zone. In contrast, under MDK 9.2 I was asked about my local time zone, and specified Central Time. IIRC, there was an option about GMT referencing of the hardware clock. Its conceivable that the discrepancy on the system clocks could be the source of the problem. I had thought that I had enabled time syncing on both systems. I'll have to check it out and get back to you.

 

thanks!!!

[Windependent]

Red, thanks for the tip. it turns out that MNF will not allow logons from the other PC behind the firewall if the system clocks are not properly synchronized - practically speaking, the two clocks have to be in the same timezone, in addition to your criterion of having to be within an hour of each other.

 

in my case, i had the MNF PC's system clock set to UTC, with the Linux clock set to the Eastern Timezone. this is the default setup that you get if you specify USA as your location during the MNF setup.

 

the Client PC (9.2) had both the sytem clock and Linux Clock set to Central Time. although clocks on both PCs were set to the correct time for their respective timezones (and effectively synchronized), this created some issues in MNF.

 

with the MNF linux clock running at (for example) 13:00 ET and the client Linux clock running at 12:00 CT, MNF will not authenticate a client logon request. that is to say, on the initial configuration it would let me log-on, but on subsequent log-ons MNF refused to proceed with authentication, solely becasue of discrepancies in the clocks.

 

evidently, MNF only pays superficial attention to the linux clocks, and doesn't bother to normalize them (referenced to UTC) for their respective time zones. as a result, even though the software clocks may actually specify the correct time in each of two different zones, MNF can't handle the situation.

 

for practical purposes, it was easier for me to change the system clock on the client machine running mandrake 9.2 (via KDE) than it would have been to reprogram the software clock on the MNF box via the command line. so i set the client PC from 12:00 CT to 13:00 ET. presto! MNF allowed the logon.

 

i promptly used the MNF remote configuration tool from the client to change the MNF linux clock to the central time zone, and then set the client back to 12:00 CT via KDE. the logon would not work...

 

examining the MNF box, the software-based changing of the clock to CT never "took." the box still reported the ET timezone. so i tried this again, resetting clocks on each PC to ET.

 

on the second attempt MNF successfully changed the software clock via the browser interface on the client PC. now both PCs are running on Central Time without a hitch. everything appears to work beautifully.

 

so i've identified a few problems:

 

1. MNF doesn't have very good timezone options on installation - I was forced into using ET and not given a choice on USA timezones

 

2. MNF won't allow "remote" logons (from behind the firewall) if the software clocks on the PCs are discrepant. the discrepancy can be caused by any number of criteria.

 

3. when attempting to program the MNF software clock from a client PC, you have to make multiple attempts to reset the clock, as sometimes the first attempt won't "take."

 

4. MNF mistakenly reports the time issues as cookie problems, which makes troubleshooting more difficult.

 

I have no idea why situation 2 described above would be the case. I get the impression that this is a really weak attempt at a security measure, or it is an oversight in which the programmers only paid the most superficial attention to verifying time across the systems' software clocks. It appears as if they do bother to check the time, but don't bother to take into account all of the calculations that are necessary to do the job properly.

 

PErhaps this was a programming shortcut. Perhaps it was an oversight. Either way, based on the posts I've seen here, alot of people have been hit by this "feature." If MNF were my product, I'd begin working on a fix.

 

thanks again.

 

bob