Hello,

Sorry for the late response. I did enable php debug but there are no errors shown. Also tried smarty and MySQL debug but there is no errors. I can see the user & main menu but the main content doesn't show.When I click on the Yellow Pages under Main Menu, the content is not showing on the center block. Same for the Submit, Popular and Toprated submenus.

I think the templates_c folder is not updating properly. I have assigned full permission to the cache, templates_c and uploads folder.

I have used XOOPS for couple of sites on the same server, but never come across such problem. I tried reinstalling but still cannot figure out this problem.Now when I try to install some other modules the admin page goes blank. Could you please suggest what must be going wrong in my installation? Could this be a server issue?

Appreciate the help.

I installed the XOOPS version 2.0.7.3 and then installed xdirectory, but I am getting a blank page. I checked the database which shows the data. Even the blocks for xdirectory don't work. Is there a compatibility problem with this version? Anyone using this module on this version please give me some suggestions.

Thanks

Hi!

I downloaded myIframes. I am able to set it up and add an Iframe, but how can I call that frame in my top page? I cannot see anything when I click myIframes from the main menu.

Anyone using this module. Pls help.

Thanks

Hi!

Does XOOPS store a system log? If so, where is this file? Where is the log entry set in the php script?

I would like to write an entry to a syslog with the username and IP address whenever a login fails. How can I do that?

Please help.

Regards

Hi again,

I managed to authenticate using PAM. I used the NIS script you wrote and modified it using thehttp://www.math.ohio-state.edu/~ccunning/pam_auth/README as reference. Now I can authenticate correctly.

Could you please clarify few things regarding the authentication module:

1. I understand when to username/password is checked using NIS/LDAP/PAM etc, if correct the username is checked in the XOOPS database. It is then added/updated accordingly. Is it necessary to copy password to the database? I do not want to store the password in the database. If I remove that part of the code, valid users are not being logged in. Is there any solution to this?

2. As mentioned in my previous email, I need to implement a very secure system. What should I edit to do these ?

Quote:

Thanks to you, I have been able to implement a login using PAM. Please help me with the above queries too.

Best regards

Hi Benoit,

I decided to drop the idea of copying to XOOPS DB. You are right its much more complex. I cannot use NIS directly, because my administrator believes it should be done at the PAM level only, since it is more secure.

Regarding PAM module, I guess you must have checked this code snippet :
http://www.math.ohio-state.edu/~ccunning/pam_auth/README

Is it possible to create a seperate login page using this code to check the user and then set something to allow the validated user to post to the forum? I hope you get my point. Since I need the login process only to post in the forum, is there any way I could accomplish this without much effort. The above code seems to be fairly simple to implement. Can it also be possible to post in the forum without having to add/update the users to the MySQL database as other authentication methods implemented within XOOPS does.

Also, to make the process of login more secure can the following also be implemented :
- 3 second delay between authentication attempts if failed
- after 3 failed attempts, send user to homepage so that he has to click on the login link again
- write an entry in syslog with username and IP address whenever authentication is failed.

I guess I will have to delay the launch of my site until this issue is resolved. Look forward to your advice and also the PAM module you plan to work on.

Best regards

Hi Benoit,

Glad for all your advice.When I first asked you about NIS, I was not aware how it works and how it is implemented on our server. My administrator advised me to use the PAM module instead to connect to the NIS server. If I am to use the NIS module, would there be any modification to be made to connect thorough PAM? If not, then I will surely give the nis module a try.

But, I am running short of time, so I have managed to copy the text file containing the username and password to the MySQL database. Now I find the password was encryted using encrypt() function not md5 as used in xoops. I then modified all files using md5 to change to crypt()(for php).
I am not sure if I have done right. The get the user login page but it gives me incorrect login error msg. Do you know which files use md5() to check password? Also when I copyied the username and password, I only copied it into xoops_users table in the database. Do I need to change anything else in the database?

Once again thanks for all the advice. After I have set login issue using the import users to database method, I will also try and work on the NIS/PAM module. I know this method of importing the users is not very feasible but due to time constriant I shall use it until a more efficient method. Please help me if you know where I must be making a mistake regarding the database as I mentioned above.

Best regards
Sunita

Hi Mercibe,

Thanks for that info. I can now understand how critical it is to set a secure system. But right now I don't have enough time to do this.

We have a linux-apache based mail server with over 3000 email users. The username and password is stored in a simple text file. The users are authenticated using IMAP via PAM.

This is my requirement:

1. My XOOPS website mainly has some news of our community and a forum for users to read and post. I need to allow all the 3000+ users who are using the email accounts to login to the forum using the same username/password.

Since implementing the PAM login seems to be complicated and time consuming, I am thinking of simply copying the entire users+password on to the MySql database. I need to know if there is any good software available to do that. I also understand that all the passwords are stored in MD5. So, I might need to convert all my current password encription to MD5. How can I do that?

2. If I am sucessfull in importing the users to the database, is XOOPS stable enough to support such a huge database? What issues I am likely to face?

Although the purpose of modifying the process is mainly to allow access to post in the forum, I am really concerned how I am going to implement this without compromising on security.

Could you pls suggest how I should best approach this. Alternatively, Is there any other free forums available which can easily meet the above requirement?

Thanks for all your help.

Best regards

Hi mercibe,

I come across another issue. My systems adminstrator would like to authenticate at the PAM level instead of NIS. Seems it more secure that way. Have you tried to implement this? What modifications must I do to get this to work?

Thanks very much for all your prompt replies. Being a beginner I am not sure how to resolve this issue.

Best regards
Sunita

Hi again,

Just a question? We have a IMAP account to access our emails. Is it possible to modify the login script to use the IMAP username account and password? I would like all our email users to also have access to our forum without having to create a new login and password.

Has anyone successfully implemented this? I would really appreaciate some help.

Best regards