Firefox 4 and Microsoft IIS Servers

DKroot

<div class="IPBDescription">HTTP authentication not working</div>After I upgraded to Firefox 4 on Mac, I started to get problems logging into *all* MS SharePoint corporate sites. I tracked down the problem today, and it seems to be a 1Password problem, specific to Firefox 4. Here are symptoms / test cases:



1. Firefox 4, 1Password extension for Firefox 4 3.5.9 enabled.

a. Go to a SharePoint URL

b. 1Password basic auth. dialog pops up. Note that Domain: = example.com:443, Realm: = blank

d. Enter Username:/Password: manually or via 1Password. Use WindowsDomain\ in a username or not use it.

e. Log in

f. Expected: Successful login. Actual: Same dialog reappears. Note that it makes login impossible without disabling an extension.



2. Firefox 4, 1Password extension for Firefox 4 3.5.9 disabled.

See above, except

b. Firefox dialog pops up.

f. Success



3. Safari 4, 1Password 3.5.9 enabled

See above, except

b. Note that Domain: = example.com:443, Realm: = example.com

f. Success

khad

Thank you for bringing this up in the forums, DKroot. We have seen a few users reporting trouble with Microsoft IIS-based HTTP auth logins.



Can I ask you to try going to this test page Jeff set up?



http://goldmark.org/test/guest-only/



Try logging in with username "guest" and password "test" (without the quotation marks).



Please also try the following accounts:



username: back\slash

password: test



username: forward/slash

password: test



As you can tell, we're trying to test if the special character "\" or "/" is interfering with the process. If not, the exception is the type of server it is. According to our testing, sites using Microsoft's IIS server are exhibiting unusual behavior in HTTP auth prompts.



The good news is that we at least narrowed the problem down to an interaction among Firefox 4, 1Password, and IIS. The bad news is that this is not something I think we will be able to sort out quickly. It will take some time for us to set up our own IIS server for testing where we can monitor exactly what is being transmitted back and forth.



I'm sorry that we don't have a quick, easy, or obvious solution that will work in your particular case. The developers are aware of the problem, and perhaps we'll be able to come up with something else as we continue to update the Firefox 4 extension.



Please let me know if there is anything else I can help with in the mean time.

DKroot

Sorry for delay in response. For some reason, I have not received email notification on your reply.



I tried your test server and both logins worked. I do see Realm: coming up non-empty on the test server.



I don't think that this problem in my case has to do anything with slashes, because in Safari my login to

some of SharePoint sites works without any slashes in the username. In fact, this is how it is stored in 1Password.

khad

Thanks for the update. Your results seem to match our own results. We will continue to investigate the IIS/Firefox 4 HTTP auth issue.



I am also looking into forum email notifications.



Cheers,

DKroot

[quote name='khad' timestamp='1303171783' post='25159']

Thanks for the update. Your results seem to match our own results. We will continue to investigate the IIS/Firefox 4 HTTP auth issue.



I am also looking into forum email notifications.



Cheers,

[/quote]



Thanks, this time I got email. <img src='http://forum.agile.ws/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

DKroot

I have the same problem with a different type of server: VisualSVN server for Windows. Again, Realm: comes up as blank, and I can't login to the server at all in Firefox 4 while I login fine in Safari.

khad

Thank you for the update! I have added this information to our internal tracker.

DKroot

I still have this problem with Firefox 5 and 1Password 3.6.0.



I must say it annoys me. The effect is that 1Password disables ability to login to corporate sites in Firefox entirely. Firefox is currently my default browser, and I have to switch to Safari every time I need to go to one of those.

khad

I'm sorry I don't have a resolution for this at the moment. My understanding is that it is an issue with Firefox, so we have not yet been able to work around it. The code is essentially the same for our Safari extension. <img src='http://forum.agile.ws/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/skype_worried.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':S' />



We have some solutions we are considering, but I don't have a time frame for a specific release.