[Mailman-Users] problem with admin cgi

Fri Apr 11 22:48:52 CEST 2003

This sounds like the old authentication bug from version 2.0

There was a setting in 2.0 where you could pick the authentication
method used by Mailman, and in some circumstances you had to change it
to a method that was available on your system (or upgrade your python).

   # Set to true to use the crypt module for passwords
   # instead of md5.  Crypt may
   # not work on all Python installations.  Don't
   # change this value once you have
   # lists running...  In fact, you should just let
   # configure set this one and leave it alone.
   USE_CRYPT = 1

The user (or member) passwords are stored in plain text, so there is no
problem with encryption on those.  the admin passwords are stored
encrypted, and if the encryption technique used is not available then
you will never be able to use one of the admin passwords.

Hope this is helpful - Jon Carnes

On Fri, 2003-04-11 at 12:00, ben strawbridge wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I have posted this in the past, but not recieved a reply.
> 
Can't say that anymore.

> I can access all the user pages fine, to edit a user and login to change
> user prefs, so I am assuming that CGI is working correctly -- Is this a
> good assumption?
> 
> When I go to log in to the Administrative page, I get an error
> "Authorization Failed" from mailman.
> 
> I am positive this has nothing to do with cookie settings on my browser,
> I have checked it from multiple browsers, running on every platform
> available -- and I checked to be sure the browsers was correctly saving
> cookies, and it is b/c other sites are using them just fine.
> 
> As a test, one which i don't know if it means the right thing, I ran
> cgi-bin/admin program from the command line. -- the error message is at
> the bottom of this messgae -- I just ran it as my own user through the
> ssh shell, so it is probably not the right user anyway... however it may
> be something.
> 
> This was installed from rpm, and i did a find on my system and there is
> no source installed on the system, so i'm not sure where to begin if i
> need to reconfigure, ANY HELP IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!
> 
> <head>
> <title>Mailman CGI error!!!</title>
> </head><body>
> <h1>Mailman CGI error!!!</h1>
> The expected gid of the Mailman CGI wrapper did not match the gid as set
> by the Web server.<p>The most likely cause is that Mailman was
> configured and installed incorrectly.  Please read the INSTALL
> instructions again, paying close attention to the
> <tt>--with-cgi-gid</tt> configure option.  This entry is being stored in
> your syslog:
> <pre>
> Failure to exec script. WANTED gid 48, GOT gid 501.  (Reconfigure to
> take 501?)</pre>
> 
This is a red herring.  You should first "su apache" or whatever user is
running your Webserver and then run the cgi from the command line.  That
gives you a much clearer idea of what is going on.