cvs pserver authorization failed

[James Garrison]

I've seen a number of threads about pserver authentication failure
for no obvious reason, and I'm getting the same errors.
 
> address@hidden jhg]$ cvs -d :pserver:address@hidden:/home/cvs/repository login
> Logging in to :pserver:address@hidden:2401/home/cvs/repository
> CVS password: 
> cvs login: authorization failed: server localhost rejected access to 
> /home/cvs/repository for user jhg

I was able to make it work by creating a passwd file in 
/home/cvs/repository/CVSROOT.  When I did that and then tried
it again:

> address@hidden jhg]$ cvs -d :pserver:address@hidden:/home/cvs/repository login
> Logging in to :pserver:address@hidden:2401/home/cvs/repository
> CVS password: 
> cvs login: failed to open /home/jhg/.cvspass for reading: No such file or 
> directory
> cvs [login aborted]: fatal error: exiting

Hmm... different error message this time, let's create .cvspass and see 
what happens:

> address@hidden jhg]$ touch .cvspass 
> address@hidden jhg]$ cvs -d :pserver:address@hidden:/home/cvs/repository login
> Logging in to :pserver:address@hidden:2401/home/cvs/repository
> CVS password: 
> address@hidden jhg]$ 

How about that, it worked!

Summary:

It appears that on RH7.1 (kernel 2.4.9-6) at least, the current version
of CVS (cvs-1.11.1p1-cvshome.7x.1) has problems with remote
authentication.
Here are some example lines from /var/log/secure (SYSLOG/AUTHPRIV)
for previously failed login attempts.

> Nov 18 17:23:08 janus xinetd[826]: START: cvspserver pid=11253 from=127.0.0.1
> Nov 18 17:23:08 janus cvs: login failure by jhg / address@hidden@^P (for 
> /home/cvs/repository)
> Nov 18 17:24:13 janus xinetd[826]: START: cvspserver pid=11256 from=127.0.0.1
> Nov 18 17:24:13 janus cvs: login failure by jhg / address@hidden@^P (for 
> /home/cvs/repository)

The string after the / which I assume is supposed to be the obfuscated
password, doesn't match what's in the protocol stream:

BEGIN VERIFICATION REQUEST
/home/cvs/repository
jhg
AS 14=/y<
END VERIFICATION REQUEST
I HATE YOU

-- 
James Garrison                                Athens Group, Inc.
mailto:address@hidden                    5608 Parkcrest Dr
http://www.athensgroup.com                    Austin, TX 78731
PGP: RSA=0x92E90A3B DH/DSS=0x498D331C         (512) 345-0600 x150