squid authentication

[Dominic Mitchell]

On Mon, Oct 22, 2001 at 02:06:07PM +0100, Kevin O'Connor wrote:
>  I've tried the squid site and seen this problem reported but have
> seen no fixes or causes listed so though someone here might know.
> squid runs fine but we now need user authentication. Using htpasswd
> I've created the password file reconfigured squid to use an external
> authenticator and created the acl. When a client tries to supply the
> username and password pair the following error pops up on the proxy
> server 2001/10/22 12:48:30 ROUTER squid[287] WARNING: authenticator
> #1 (FD 16) exited 2001/10/22 12:49:10 ROUTER squid[287] WARNING:
> authenticator #2 (FD17) exited i've also tried using the -d switch to
> htpasswd incase it's a problem with crypt() but get the same result
> all suggestions including forget it and go down the pub will be
> appreciated Regards

I think you probably have to download another program to act as the
authenticator.  I can't see one in the ports collection right now, but I
might not be looking too hard.

The problem is that htpasswd is a program for managing passwd(5) like
files, but what squid is expecting (IIRC) is a program that reads a line
from stdin, authenticates using it and returns a yes or no answer.  It
does this repeatedly.

Something like this is pretty easy to knock up using perl, but there's
probably a better solution.

Aha, have a look at:

    http://www.squid-cache.org/Doc/FAQ/FAQ-19.html#configuring-proxy-auth

That gives a description of how to set up an external authenticator that
uses perl.  Alas, the squid port does not compile the "ncsa_auth" binary
by default, so you'll have to go in and do it yourself.

If you have any troubles doing this, please tell us, including the error
messages.

-Dom