Contents:
Q: I've installed filter in the IIS. I've used admin tool but nothing
happens!
Q: I can't access the AUTHADMINCGI.EXE with the administratice user account
- filter stops me!
Q: Can I use the Integrated Windows Authentication (NT Challenge
response) or Digest Authentication with the filter?
Q: Is it dangerous to use clear text authentication for the site(s)
users?
Q: How to use NT Challenge Response authentication to access
AUTHADMINCGI.EXE?
Q: I have problems in the environment with trusted domains.
Q: I've installed filter in the IIS. I've used admin tool but
nothing happens!
A: There are two important things you must note here:
1. CGI tool must initially access the system branch of the registry (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE)
thus it needs administrative rights for the actions such as: setting configuration file
and setting the serial number. To solve the problem you will need to configure IIS to ask
for authentication when accessing the admin CGI and authenticate as an administrator when
asked. This can be done from the Microsoft Management Console - click properties over the
AUTHADMINCGI.EXE and on the File security tab leave checked only "Basic
authentication". You can use another type of authentication - but if you are not
experienced with the IIS and IE behavior this configuration will be the easiest way (see
questions below for more information).
2. Doing the previous actions and having AUTHADMINCGI.EXE working perfectly you may
encounter that the filter does not handle authentications still. After configuring or
reconfiguring the configuration file and/or serial number you will need to restart the WEB
server - type net stop w3svc net start w3svc
on the command prompt to do so. This is needed because filter limits access to
the registry in order too improve the performance and thus it accesses it only when
starting - thus the changes in the registry will not take effect until filter reload.
Q: I can't access the AUTHADMINCGI.EXE with the administratice
user account - filter stops me!
A: It is good idea to place this exe in a site not handled by the filter. It is
an administration tool for the entire system thus it does not belong to any site. If you
have some reason to refer AUTHADMINCGI.EXE in a site handled by the filter you will need
to add the administrator account in the bundled to the site authority and uncheck
"Map to" check box for him. This will pass this user directly to the NT
authority and thus for this particular user filter willbe transparent. Of course you will
need to unload or disable the filter temporary in order to do so. In such situations you
may need to edit the configuration manualy and especially if you don't want to stop and
restart the WEB server. Open the configuration file (usualy AUTH.CFG) and in the section
MAIN set value of the Disable record to 1 - example:
(int)Disable=1
This will disable the filter. Then you can enter the CGI authenticating directly to the
NT, then you can enable filter by setting this vlaue to 0 (or through the admin tool).
Q: Can I use the Integrated Windows Authentication (NT Challenge
response) or Digest Authentication with the filter?
A: Not - these authentications act as like another (alternative) filter(s) thus
they are directed to the NT authentication services. Something more - browsers like
Netscape, Opera and old versions of the Internet Explorer do not support them thus you
must enable clear text authentication on the sites where you are using the filter.
Q: Is it dangerous to use clear text authentication for the
site(s) users?
A: This depends on the targets you have. If you are trying to use this filter
for some bank account system we can not recommend it. But in the most popular WEB
situations it is safe enough - because clear text passwords can be captched only by the
routers in the path of the IP packets - thus this requires too much manual work and as a
result will serve to the hackers only the web-user password - not the NT password. If this
is not enough you can use SSL (Secure socket layer) on your site.
This leads again to suggestion made before: put the main admin tool - AUTHADMINCGI.EXE on
the separate site for example Administration site automatically created by the IIS. Making
this you can access it using more secure authentication. In difference to the other
content on the server here you will use the administrative NT account thus care about the
security over the main admin tool is a good idea.
Q: How to use NT Challenge Response authentication to access
AUTHADMINCGI.EXE?
A: NT Challaenge Response authentication scheme much likes to the authentication mechanism
used for the Windows Networking (file sharings). The behavior of the Internet Explorer is
the real problem sometimes - it uses credentials of the currently logged on user (localy)
and sends them automaticaly to the server. This happens in the local NT domain(s) only but
the filter's admin tool is accessed mostly from the machines on the local network. Thus
some problems are quite possible: If the admin CGI is accessible for the local user that
you are using you will be logged on as the given user without any notice and if this user
is not a member of the Administrators group tool will not be able to write to the system
registry! You can resolve such problems in many ways - you can make the exe accessible
only for the Administrators (using NTFS security) and thus force the IIS to ask for login
or you can set "Clear text authentication" to be used for it. There is one
better way - to configure Internet Explorer to always ask for username and password. This
can be done in the security tab of the Internet Options dialog (IE 5 and later). Here for
the zone where the server is (usualy local Intranet if you are on the local network) you
can set "Prompt for user name and password" in the User Authentication tree
displayed from the Custom settings button.
If you gonna administer the filter form the remote location without using virtual private
networks or some other way to make the server part of the local intranet it will be good
idea to add it to the "Trusted sites".
Q: I have problems in the environment with trusted domains.
A: It is always a good idea to specify the full name of the account where
needed. For example NT accounts used for mapping can be specified in the full form -
DOMAIN\Username. If you suppose that your server can be moved to another domain (one of
the trusted) this will help you to keep the configuration/authorities the same.