USATLAS TWiki Publishing and Security Details

Introduction

In response to recent vulnerability exploits and spamming attacks, the US ATLAS TWiki pages have been upgraded and moved to a new server on a secure HTTP connection.

TWiki URL

The only difference in any previous TWiki URLs is the "s" that is now added to "http" for the new, authenticated TWiki: https://www.usatlas.bnl.gov/twiki/bin/view/

Accounts

It is no longer necessary to register for a WikiName? on the TWiki, or to enter your WikiName? and password, once you have authenticated with the server using your BNL US ATLAS credentials.

See this page for information regarding how to obtain a BNL US ATLAS computing account. If you have forgotten your user name or password, please open an RT ticket in the User Accounts queue and provide as much information as possible.

If you'd prefer to use a WikiName? instead of your BNL US ATLAS login, you may register for one, but this is no longer required.

Logging In

Users with valid accounts can enter their BNL US ATLAS user name and password (not a WikiName? and password) to gain access to the live TWiki pages. Because this server authenticates against BNL US ATLAS accounts, users who don't have such accounts will not be able to reach the TWiki site unless they register for one.

When you first try to access a US ATLAS TWiki page, you'll be prompted for a user name and password; enter your BNL US ATLAS account name and password. Upon successful authentication, you'll then reach a Webauth Confirm screen, which displays your user name and a link to the page you've tried to access. Click this link to continue on to the TWiki.

Log-In Errors

If you enter your user name and password, click OK, and the login dialog re-appears, you've likely entered entered either an incorrect user name or password, or both. Simply re-enter your user name and password.

If you reach an "authorization failed" page, you've likely tried to log into the US ATLAS TWiki using an account other than your US ATLAS account (i.e., an account with another experiment), which may be valid but is not authorized to access the TWiki site.

In order to attempt another login after an authentication error, you'll need to close and re-open your browser (or use some other method of destroying the cookie that holds your Webauth token) in order to obtain a fresh authentication cookie.

Unauthenticated Mirror

To ensure that the TWiki information is made available to anyone who might need it, its pages are being converted to HTML and made available in parallel on a second server, which is not authenticated and permits common access:

http://www.usatlas.bnl.gov/twiki/bin/view/

Thus, any user who enters the URL of an old TWiki page, or follows an old bookmark or link that does not point to the authenticated TWiki server, will be brought to the HTML version of the previous page.

Note that the Edit buttons, and other TWiki-related functions in the non-secure content, have been removed and can be found only on the secure TWiki server. In order to aid the editing process, the bottom of each unauthenticated page contains a direct link to its matching page on the secure TWiki server.

Public Page Publishing

According to the current publishing flow, non-secured content will be updated three times daily. However, we now have a mechanism by which authenticated users can publish their own TWiki updates to the public server: clicking the Publish button at the top of each topic page replicates the content immediately.

In addition, page editors can use the Publishing page to publish other topics or an entire TWiki web.

Comments and Improvements

Your patience during this transition is appreciated, as are your comments and suggestions for improving the process.

To report problems with TWiki authentication or the publishing mechanism, to get help with special tasks, or to make suggestions for improvement, create a support ticket in the WWW queue and include as much information as possible.

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Major updates:

-- JohnDeStefano - 11 Oct 2007: Added authentication updates and log-in details. -- JohnDeStefano - 22 Nov 2006: Added information on new Publish button. -- JohnDeStefano - 06 Nov 2006: First major update.