(ok 2.10) Detecting missing permissions on session directory

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Problem solved.

In php.ini option session.save_path was changed to /home/domainname.com/tmp but chmod for this directory was 40755 and session files could not be created in this way. After changing chmod to 40757 everything start working.

The same problem we have on Windows if session.save_path option directory have incorrect permissions (NTFS) or if this directory absent (Windows, Unix), and in php.ini display_errors = Off.

To developers:
Is there any reason in unsetting requested variables if token is absent or incorrect. May be the logic could be like this.

if (!isset($_REQUEST['token']) || $_SESSION['PMA_token'] != $_REQUEST['token']) {
exit('Enable Cookie!');
}

Why script continue it's working if it's not working correctly without user's cookies or server's sessions?

On the page with error "Enable Cookie!" you can make link on documentation where describe how user can enable cookie or if it's not help, how solve problem with session.save_path directory on the server side.

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Thanks for working on this issue.
Your user should have been seeing on the top of each page a message telling him to enable cookies.

Note: at this point in common.lib.php, we cannot just exit().

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Marc, please, look at the screen, that's what we saw with our user. It is how it looks like on Windows XP without write permission on folder session.save_path points to. There is no message "Cookies must be enabled past this point" because this part of code in file header.inc.php, line 161:

if (empty($_COOKIE)) {
echo '<div class="notice">' . $GLOBALS['strCookiesRequired'] . '</div>' . "\n";
}

That's how I change it (don't beat me hard :))

if (SID !== '' || $_SESSION[' PMA_token '] !== $_REQUEST['token']) {
exit('<div class="notice">' . $GLOBALS['strCookiesRequired'] . '</div>');
}

Now it looks more convenient for me. And YES! I can't live without exit(). We love each other. :)

There is another file with the same logic - cookie.auth.lib.php line 224.
File Added: phpMyAdmin.PNG

phpMyAdmin screen without sessions

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Hanut,
as you mentioned using hardened php:
maybe you have to adjust hphp.post.max_value_length and/or some other settings
see http://www.hardened-php.net/hphp/troubleshooting.html

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Hanut,
why should we display a "cookies must be enabled" message when the real problem is a wrong permission on the sessions directory?

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plz ignore my last post, i didn't recognize that the problem was session.save_path (and solved in the meantime)

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> Hanut,
> why should we display a "cookies must be enabled" message when the real
> problem is a wrong permission on the sessions directory?

Marc,
the real problem I see is why script should continue its working if sessions disabled in any way (user side, server side... doesn't matter). Think it's logical to shut down the script completely if we have sessions problems.

May be during installation procees we have to check "session.save_path" directory permission? Is it what you mean?

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Hanut,
I agree that we could detect a sessions problem but this problem should be reported with another error message, not the one about cookies. And it's not enough to detect during the installation process, permissions can change during the life of a server.

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he would get errors if not someone introduced this EVIL @ (i think @ is even more evil than eval) in session.inc.php before session_start()

if someone introduces @ before function calls he also has to ensure that all possible errors get caught if not can be viewed by user!

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how about something like this:

ob_start();
$old_display_errors = ini_get('display_errors');
$old_error_reporting = error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
$r = session_start();
ini_set('display_errors', $old_display_errors);
error_reporting($old_error_reporting);
unset($old_display_errors, $old_error_reporting);
$session_error = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
if ($r !== true || ! empty($session_error)) {
echo 'cannot start session without errors, please check errors given and
configure your PHP insallation properly.<br /><br />';
echo $session_error;
die();
}

of course we could also not display the error message and point to the php error log, and of course use the error.php page

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@Sebastian,
>$r = session_start();
This is bogus, session_start() *always* returns true!

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yes - but who knows PHP 6 ... ;-)

did someone test the above code? or should i just checkin this piece into TRUNK?

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well,
to avoid calling this on *every* page i tried this in index.php:
---
// free the session file, for the other frames to be loaded
ob_start();
$old_display_errors = ini_get('display_errors');
$old_error_reporting = error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
session_write_close();
ini_set('display_errors', $old_display_errors);
error_reporting($old_error_reporting);
unset($old_display_errors, $old_error_reporting);
$session_error = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
if (! empty($session_error)) {
echo '<h1 style="color:red">Sessions are NOT working!</h1>session.save_path ';
$iniSavePath = ini_get('session.save_path');
if(empty($iniSavePath)) {
echo 'not set, using default dir = "', $_ENV['TMP'], '" ($_ENV["TMP"])';
} else {
echo '= "', $iniSavePath, '"';
}
die('<h3>folder not existing or no r/w permissions for php (see php.ini)?');
}
---
works very well (internationalized messages needed of course).

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not all user uses frames, some directly start with server_databases or main or something similar

a locale message is not possible as locale strings are not loaded at this time: session -> config -> locale strings

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i checked in some code to detect this error - please test SVN

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a)
with bad path: only a minor typo (insallation ;)
how about alink to the wiki, there are many issues especially for win users!

b.)

Warning: in /srv/http/pma.cihar.com/trunk-config/libraries/Theme.class.php on line 113

Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: Cannot send session cache limiter - headers already sent (output started at /srv/http/pma.cihar.com/trunk-config/libraries/Theme.class.php:113) in /srv/http/pma.cihar.com/trunk-config/libraries/session.inc.php on line 117

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Warning: in /srv/http/pma.cihar.com/trunk-config/libraries/Theme.class.php on line 113

that's why there was an "@" infront of session_start() (i assume ;)
But you are right, better avoid the @ if not absolutly neccessary!

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b.) has nothing to do with THIS bug, but you have no valid img path???
and of course - if you have display_errors enabled you will get this error if some error messages appear before sending headers ...

a.) typo fixed, about linking: we have no links to wiki in the source - all links go to local documentation, additionally we first need a function for this like for MySQL doc links

please try again - fixed typo, added locale message support, repeat check until success not only once

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the error msg. was from pma.cihar.com demo :P