Staying logged in.

[krillmeed]

This does seem to be a AOL Problem, sorry i did not get back to this, but received no email replies for it. This dear lady has got back to me, and i am afraid the problem seems to have got worse. I attach to this post screen shots, of the problem. They have all been passed through my anti virus, and are safe, this does seem to be a AOL problem i think. Please Please Please help, since she is very important to our forum

[Helter]

it may be a browser issue also. I am having this problem latley on almost all of the sites I normally visit, including phpbb2, phpbb3 IntegraMOD and nuke forums. Since it is mostly happening in FF, it could be related to a recent FF update, but it is also occasionally happening in IE. I have deleted cookies and caches and reinstalled to no avail. I know what a pain it must be for her.

[krillmeed]

She has told me she has bypassed AOL now, and can at least log in. Will keep everyone posted if this solves the problem. Thanks Helterskelter for the quick response. I told her, if you do not have the solution for this, then what chance do us meer mortals have for solving it LOL

[meijin]

When it coes to AOL users, try this...it is straight from the phpBB folks:


# My AOL based users keep getting logged out!

phpBB2 uses sessions to keep track of users as they browse the board. These sessions use a combination of a unique session id and the users IP to identify each user. We make use of the IP as an extra safe-guard to help prevent sessions being hijacked (by discovering the unique session id).

Unfortunately this only works when the users IP is constant as they browse the board. For most users this will be the case. However certain providers route their users via a cluster of proxys. In some cases, particularly AOL this results in different IPs being forwarded as the user moves between pages. We take account of this by not checking the entire IP but only the first "three quads". Again in most cases this will be fine. However again AOL uses IPs which can vary so much that checking only the first two quads results in a fairly static IP being available for session validation.

If you are experiencing problems related to this you can make a small change to the code. Please note that reducing the IP validation length does potentially increase the risk of sessions being hijacked (this is something for you to consider, phpBB Group takes no responsibility should anything happen!). The change requires you to open the file sessions.php in the includes/ directory of the distribution. Find line 250, it contains the following

$ip_check_s = substr($userdata['session_ip'], 0, 6);

change this to:

$ip_check_s = substr($userdata['session_ip'], 0, 4);

You need to make exactly the same change to the number 6 in the next line. Save the file (and upload it if required). This should reduce or eliminate the problem noted.

[krillmeed]

Please note that reducing the IP validation length does potentially increase the risk of sessions being hijacked (this is something for you to consider, phpBB Group takes no responsibility should anything happen!).

What does this mean? If i carry this out it will be possible to hack my forum?

Thanks for the detailed answer by the way <img>

[meijin]

I'll let the more experienced folks speak more indepth on this, but I have been told that this does not add an unnecessary security risk in the overall scheme of things.

[Helter]

every forum is possible to hack, if the culprit is determined and smart enough. This fix just makes your forum a little more vulnerable to a specific type of hack.
Generally .script kiddies dont know what they are doing, they just read that whatever .script they downloaded will work on specific types of forums. If you have several users who need this fix, then you have to weight the benefits against the risk.
I think that in order for this fix to work, you might also have to adjust CTracker, because it also reviews ips.
This is also the type of fix that should remain a secret . The fewer the ppl who know about any drop in security the better.

[meijin]

Any ideas what would need to be done with CTTracker? I have held off on this, but have a TON of AOL users that are trying (unsuccessfully) to use my site.

Thanks!

[CaNNon]

Try it meijin, run it and have a AOL user test. Make sure you back up the file first,do the edit then set CT in debug mode and have the AOL user try everything.

lets say for comparing:

122.2.231.24 is the full ip.
122.2.23* is what they are matching to the sessions.
122.2* and is what they are suggesting for the new match to sessions.

Don't get me wrong helter is right you are lowering your protection but I think there is still enough geography in the handling that you be should ok. What you should also do though is protect/watch admin accounts in this case though.

[krillmeed]

As far as i know it is only one user. She can now stay logged in by bypassing AOL. So i think for securities sake i will leave it at least for the moment.
I would appreciate though meijin if you post any changes you have to make to CTTracker for future reference if you donÂÂÂ ´t mind.

[Helter]

i looked through the CT Login IP Feature and it looks like it will not ban. It will just warn of the changes. In not sure what affect it will have on your sessions table though