[r-node-users] R-Node update - security improvements

[Jamie Love]

Hi all,

I've pushed a few changes to the code repository at http://gitorious.org/r-node.

Key updates recently include:

  1.   User management now includes username/password based authentication.
  2    It is now possible to configure the system to have per-user R sessions (no more session sharing).

To configure R-Node to use these, look at the configuration file server/etc/config-example.js


If you have any questions about setting up R-Node to use these new features, please ask me.

Regards,
Jamie

[Vinh Nguyen]

So I pulled the latest update and ran make. What then do I do next to
try out these features? I checked out the files but have no idea.
Thanks.

Vinh

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[Jamie Love]

The key file is the configuration file in server/etc/config-example.xml

Copy this to server/etc/config.xml

Then, edit it and make the changes you need.

  - To use per-user R sessions, look for the parameter "sessionManagement", and change it to the text "perUser",

To require users to log in (and by extension limit access to a set of known users):

  - change the "authentication" section to be:

    "authentication": {

        "type": "basic-user"

        usersFile: "etc/users-example.js",

        sessionTimeout: 30

    }

The users file is a path to a file from the server directory, so to access a file in the directory 'etc', use 'etc/filename.js' -

e.g:

    "authentication": {

        "type": "basic-user"

        usersFile: "etc/users.js",

        sessionTimeout: 30

    }

Then, change directory to "server/tools" and use the program rnpasswd to create the username/password login file (you must be in this directory to use this program):

This will create a user entry, allowing the user jlove to log in:

./rnpasswd ../etc/users.js  jlove mypasswd

And this will delete the user:

./rnpasswd ../etc/users.js -d jlove

Hope that helps

Jamie

[Vinh Nguyen]

error with following:

./run-server.sh
{ loadJsonFile: [Function], nodelog: [Function] }
19 Apr 20:53:19 - (local): Loaded configuration from 'etc/config.js'
SyntaxError: Unexpected token ILLEGAL
at Object.parse (native)
at Object.loadJsonFile
(/home/vinh/Downloads/r-node/deploy/rnodeUtils.js:66:17)
at Object.<anonymous> (/home/vinh/Downloads/r-node/deploy/r-node.js:33:20)
at Module._compile (node.js:704:23)
at node.js:732:20
at fs:51:23
at node.js:813:9

my server/etc/config.js:
//
// R-Node configuration file.
// Basically this defines the server side configuration for R-Node
// It's pure JSON, except that it allows single line comments
//
{
"listen": {
//
// The port to listen on.
//
"port": 2903,

//
// The interface to listen on, or null to listen on all.
// Set to 'localhost' for more security.
//
"interface": null
},

//
// Authentication module and configuration for the authentication
//
"authentication": {
// Authenticators can be found in the 'authenticators' directory.
// "none", or "basic-user"
"type": "basic-user"

// Rest of authenticator configuration listed here.
//
// For "none" no configuration is necessary.
// For "basic-user":
//
usersFile: "etc/users.js"
sessionTimeout: 30 // minutes
},

"R": {
//
// The base directory of R - default in Ubuntu is /usr/lib/R
//
"root": "/usr/lib/R",

//
// The base directory from where to find R temporary files
//
"temporaryDirectory": "/",

//
// Username and password to connect to RServe with.
// Only used if RServe requires a username/password
//
"username": "test",
"password": "test",

//
// R sessions management.
// Valid values are "single", "perUser"
//
"sessionManagement": "perUser",

//
// If you have a per-user type of session management,
// set the length of time to wait before closing an idle
// session.
//
// This is in minutes.
//
// It's a good idea to set this longer or equal to than
// the authentication session timeout.
//
"idleSessionTimeout": 30

}
}


Also, since u need to run both run-server.sh and R, do u use screen to
run both? What method do u use to keep both running?

[Jamie Love]

You're missing a comma after the line:

usersFile: "etc/users.js"


I usually use screen to run R-Node, and you can run Rserve without
needing to keep a window open using

R CMD Rserve

Jamie

[Vinh Nguyen]

Same error with this:

//
// R-Node configuration file.
// Basically this defines the server side configuration for R-Node
// It's pure JSON, except that it allows single line comments
//
{
"listen": {
//
// The port to listen on.
//
"port": 2903,

//
// The interface to listen on, or null to listen on all.
// Set to 'localhost' for more security.
//
"interface": null
},

//
// Authentication module and configuration for the authentication
//
"authentication": {
// Authenticators can be found in the 'authenticators' directory.
// "none", or "basic-user"

"type": "basic-user",

// Rest of authenticator configuration listed here.
//
// For "none" no configuration is necessary.
// For "basic-user":
//

usersFile: "etc/users.js",

[Jamie Love]

And you're missing a comma after the line:

"type": "basic-user"


-- I do need to make that feedback better.

[Vinh Nguyen]

I do have this, check it again.

On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 2:03 PM, Jamie Love <drj...@gmail.com> wrote:
> And you're missing a comma after the line:
>
> "type": "basic-user"


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[Jamie Love]

I'm afraid I can't see any other errors in the configuration file,
maybe try copying config-example.js to config.js again, and try
changing one line at a time to see if you can find the line with the
error.

Sadly the JSON format is very sensitive, and the Nodejs JSON parse
doesn't have the best error messages.

[Vinh Nguyen]

Still getting the following error. I don't think the error is coming
from config.js since it says the file is already loaded. Is it coming
from rnodeUtils??? Can you share your config file?

./run-server.sh
{ loadJsonFile: [Function], nodelog: [Function] }

22 Apr 15:37:56 - (local): Loaded configuration from 'etc/config.js'

SyntaxError: Unexpected token ILLEGAL
at Object.parse (native)
at Object.loadJsonFile
(/home/vinh/Downloads/r-node/deploy/rnodeUtils.js:66:17)
at Object.<anonymous> (/home/vinh/Downloads/r-node/deploy/r-node.js:33:20)
at Module._compile (node.js:704:23)
at node.js:732:20
at fs:51:23
at node.js:813:9

[Jamie Love]

Hi Vinh,

It actually prints the "Loaded..." after loading the file, but before
parsing the file, so it's definitely a problem with that file.

Attached is a configuration file with those parsing errors fixed. It
has user logins turned on, and per-user R sessions.

I've attached an example users file as well, it has two users:

admin (with password 'admin')
test (with password 'test)

Both files should be placed in the server/etc directory.

In the end, it was the lack of " around the names of the configuration
items. I'll update the example config to make sure this isn't a
problem. I have it on my list of things to do to make the config
parsing less annoying and stupid.

When I need to shut Rserve down, I just:

ps -ef | grep '[R]serve' | awk '{print $2}' | xargs kill

(after shutting down R-Node). I don't know of any better way to do it.