users inherit others login

users inherit others login

by Tim Scott -
Number of replies: 9
This problem has was first noticed when a group of users created new accounts for a class all at the same time. It seems that the 1st user to create an account then appeared as the login user for all other class members.

All assistence greatly apprecialted.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Tim Scott

Re: users inherit others login

by Tom Murdock -
At the end of the day, I would probably prefer the inheritance, as it makes logging on for me a matter of submitting a password, rather than a username and password.

It is true, when I share my computer with another moodler, it becomes less convenient. I suspect that a great number of people use Moodle as a distance tool for people with access to machines at home, rather than using it in a computer-lab/computer-station scenario.

I dunno. Just $10.
In reply to Tim Scott

Re: users inherit others login

by Martin Dougiamas -
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Can you explain more clearly what you're seeing? I think you're talking about something else than the default username that is shown in the login screen (that Tom mentioned).

Each person has a unique session. New account are created as soon as you hit the "Create my new account" button on the "New Account" screen. The form data is checked then fed straight into the function that creates the database entry and sends off the confirmation email.

What authentication method are you using? Is this class sharing computers in some way?
In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: users inherit others login

by Tim Scott -
OK, 22 networked iMacs running IE 5.2 on OS X (version before the latest)

Server running mysql Ver 11.18 Distrib 3.23.54 and php 4.1.2 on redhat.

In my class today, I asked the students to monitor what was happening.

If student A logs out then clicks on the class link from the intial moodle page, he is auto logged in as student B, the last student to correctly log in ie he is not presented at all with the login page and assumes all the ownership rights of student B. If student A logs out and in again, he is correctly presented with the login screen and student C who then clicks on the class link to login is auto logged in as Student A!

I have great classes who think that moodle is wonderful and who have not used the problem to their advantage (yet).
In reply to Tim Scott

Re: users inherit others login

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
Completely bizarre. I can't think of any way this could happen in a normal environment. I'm 99.9% certain it's not a Moodle problem.

What authentication method are you using? Do all the machines access the server through a cache proxy of some sort?

It's almost like the clients are sharing cookies or ther server is confusing sessions. You could try upgrading PHP and Apache on the server.
In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: users inherit others login

by Aaron Boeren -

I would upgrade to php 4.3.0 more commands and maybe morestable.biggrin.gif

Plus you might not get this problem.

In reply to Tim Scott

Re: users inherit others login

by Zaini Shahar -
I have experienced quite a similar situation where after a user logins in, the browser logs him into another user's session. After weeks of monitoring the problem, I observed in the users activity logs users machine ip addresses are coming from our campus proxy servers.The user session was switched from one proxy to another during an active moodle session. The next thing I did was to set all our lab PCs Internet Explorer to bypass our proxy server when accessing our moodle server and the problem dissapeared. May be you would like to check on this.
In reply to Tim Scott

Re: users inherit others login

by Pontus Sörlin -
Could it be that the login name is appearing at login for another user - for example the last one who logged in? I have seen this also sometimes, but haven't really considered it. The pass doesn't show, though. smile
In reply to Pontus Sörlin

Since a Windows Update?

by Timothy Takemoto -

I have noticed this problem on my moodles RECENTLY I am not sure why it should have started to happen recently since my moodle in which it seems to happen most often is 1.2.1. I go there and the login username of the student that last logged in is still visible even though the IP address is definately different. I guess you can see my username at the link below now.
http://tim.econo.yamaguchi-u.ac.jp/moodle/login/index.php

This problem really does seem recent. I can't remember it happening before about 6 weeks ago. Perhaps after some Windows Update? After a Windows Upday My Zone Alarm said not so long ago that Internet Explorer had changed (and should it still have permission to get to the internet). Perhaps that change to Internet Explorer changed the way it dealt with text input fields. If flushing on the login page could be improved then it would be a great help. Our students are using a proxy too so I guess that they will all be coming from the same IP address, even if the cookie is different. I have yet to hear of students logging in as other students, even though yesterday I did an exam using Moodle where about 30 students logged in and out at the same time.

Tim

In reply to Timothy Takemoto

Re: Since a Windows Update?

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
The prefilled username in the login page is remembered by

a) an optional Moodle cookie (to save your typing)
b) your browser settings for remembering form contents

If you have used the "Login as" feature then this cookie gets set and so that's why you may be seeing student usernames in there.

No-one else will be seeing anything, so don't worry.