I'd love to know what the rest of this error message is.

dlivesay@covad.net wrote:

I've been using PostgreSQL on Mac OS X for a few years, but now I'm trying to
install it on a WIndows computer so someone else can use it, and I'm getting
the following error message when I try to advance beyond the "Service
Configuration" screen in the installer:

"Your local 'Administrators' group contains 'Authenticated Users'.
This is a common configuration error that causes security issues. For this
reason, Postgr"

That's it. Apparently the whole error message doesn't fit in the error dialog,
but there's no way to resize the window.

Does anybody know what the rest of this message might be? Bonus points if you
can explain what it means, and especially if you can explain what to do about
it.

Don't install as an adminstrator :), that is the long and short of it.

Joshua D. Drake

I suspect this is more a WIndows problem than a PostgreSQL problem, but I'm
afraid I don't know that much about Windows. I'm a Mac/Unix kind of guy, and I
try to avoid using WIndows whenever possible because this kind of stuff always
happens.

Thanks!

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In response to dlivesay@covad.net:

I've been using PostgreSQL on Mac OS X for a few years, but now I'm trying to
install it on a WIndows computer so someone else can use it, and I'm getting
the following error message when I try to advance beyond the "Service
Configuration" screen in the installer:

"Your local 'Administrators' group contains 'Authenticated Users'.
This is a common configuration error that causes security issues. For this
reason, Postgr"

That's it. Apparently the whole error message doesn't fit in the error dialog,
but there's no way to resize the window.

Does anybody know what the rest of this message might be? Bonus points if you
can explain what it means, and especially if you can explain what to do about
it.

I suspect this is more a WIndows problem than a PostgreSQL problem, but I'm
afraid I don't know that much about Windows. I'm a Mac/Unix kind of guy, and I
try to avoid using WIndows whenever possible because this kind of stuff always
happens.

I don't know 100%, but it looks like the "authenticated users" group is a
member of the "administrators" group. This means that anyone who logs in
to the workstation is an administrator. It's a complete lack of security,
but it's also very common (in my experience) for Windows workstations.

I'm guessing that the PG installer is being anal and refusing to allow you
to install on such a poorly configured system, but that part I don't know.

My suggestion would be to fix the users/groups on the Windows system so there
is a special administrative user, then remove authenticated users from the
administrator group.

--
Bill Moran
http://www.potentialtech.com

On 02/03/2007 21:14, Joshua D. Drake wrote:

Don't install as an adminstrator :), that is the long and short of it.

I didn't think there was any problem about installing as an
Administrator - just having PG run as one.

Ray.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Raymond O'Donnell, Director of Music, Galway Cathedral, Ireland
rod@iol.ie
---------------------------------------------------------------

In response to Raymond O'Donnell <rod@iol.ie>:

On 02/03/2007 21:14, Joshua D. Drake wrote:

Don't install as an adminstrator :), that is the long and short of it.

I didn't think there was any problem about installing as an
Administrator - just having PG run as one.

The problem is not who you're logged in as. The problem is that your
security configuration makes _everyone_ who logs in an administrator.

--
Bill Moran
http://www.potentialtech.com

Quoting Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com>:

In response to dlivesay@covad.net:

I've been using PostgreSQL on Mac OS X for a few years, but now I'm
trying to
install it on a WIndows computer so someone else can use it, and I'm getting
the following error message when I try to advance beyond the "Service
Configuration" screen in the installer:

"Your local 'Administrators' group contains 'Authenticated Users'.
This is a common configuration error that causes security issues. For this
reason, Postgr"

That's it. Apparently the whole error message doesn't fit in the
error dialog,
but there's no way to resize the window.

Does anybody know what the rest of this message might be? Bonus
points if you
can explain what it means, and especially if you can explain what to
do about
it.

I suspect this is more a WIndows problem than a PostgreSQL problem, but I'm
afraid I don't know that much about Windows. I'm a Mac/Unix kind of
guy, and I
try to avoid using WIndows whenever possible because this kind of
stuff always
happens.

I don't know 100%, but it looks like the "authenticated users" group is a
member of the "administrators" group. This means that anyone who logs in
to the workstation is an administrator. It's a complete lack of security,
but it's also very common (in my experience) for Windows workstations.

I'm guessing that the PG installer is being anal and refusing to allow you
to install on such a poorly configured system, but that part I don't know.

My suggestion would be to fix the users/groups on the Windows system so there
is a special administrative user, then remove authenticated users from the
administrator group.

When I saw this error I immediately went to the "Local Users and
Groups" control
panel to see if I could figure out what the heck it was talking about, and I
swear there is no group called "Authenticated Users". That's what's so
baffling
about this, apart from the incomplete error message.

In response to dlivesay@covad.net:

Quoting Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com>:

In response to dlivesay@covad.net:

I've been using PostgreSQL on Mac OS X for a few years, but now I'm
trying to
install it on a WIndows computer so someone else can use it, and I'm getting
the following error message when I try to advance beyond the "Service
Configuration" screen in the installer:

"Your local 'Administrators' group contains 'Authenticated Users'.
This is a common configuration error that causes security issues. For this
reason, Postgr"

That's it. Apparently the whole error message doesn't fit in the
error dialog,
but there's no way to resize the window.

Does anybody know what the rest of this message might be? Bonus
points if you
can explain what it means, and especially if you can explain what to
do about
it.

I suspect this is more a WIndows problem than a PostgreSQL problem, but I'm
afraid I don't know that much about Windows. I'm a Mac/Unix kind of
guy, and I
try to avoid using WIndows whenever possible because this kind of
stuff always
happens.

I don't know 100%, but it looks like the "authenticated users" group is a
member of the "administrators" group. This means that anyone who logs in
to the workstation is an administrator. It's a complete lack of security,
but it's also very common (in my experience) for Windows workstations.

I'm guessing that the PG installer is being anal and refusing to allow you
to install on such a poorly configured system, but that part I don't know.

My suggestion would be to fix the users/groups on the Windows system so there
is a special administrative user, then remove authenticated users from the
administrator group.

When I saw this error I immediately went to the "Local Users and
Groups" control
panel to see if I could figure out what the heck it was talking about, and I
swear there is no group called "Authenticated Users". That's what's so
baffling
about this, apart from the incomplete error message.

Ahh ... IIRC, this isn't a _real_ group, it's kind of a pseudo-group that
Windows evaluates on the fly to distinguish between users who have
authenticated, and people who are using the system without having logged
in (the fact that such a thing is possible at all is disturbing ...)

It's a shame -- I get the impression that the rest of that error message
would help you fix the issue, but I don't remember what you can do about
it. Probably something to do with group policy, or some other setting
in the security realm.

--
Bill Moran
http://www.potentialtech.com

On Mar 2, 2007, at 5:01 PM, Bill Moran wrote:

In response to dlivesay@covad.net:

Quoting Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com>:

In response to dlivesay@covad.net:

I've been using PostgreSQL on Mac OS X for a few years, but now I'm
trying to
install it on a WIndows computer so someone else can use it, and
I'm getting
the following error message when I try to advance beyond the
"Service
Configuration" screen in the installer:

"Your local 'Administrators' group contains 'Authenticated Users'.
This is a common configuration error that causes security
issues. For this
reason, Postgr"

That's it. Apparently the whole error message doesn't fit in the
error dialog,
but there's no way to resize the window.

Does anybody know what the rest of this message might be? Bonus
points if you
can explain what it means, and especially if you can explain
what to
do about
it.

I suspect this is more a WIndows problem than a PostgreSQL
problem, but I'm
afraid I don't know that much about Windows. I'm a Mac/Unix kind of
guy, and I
try to avoid using WIndows whenever possible because this kind of
stuff always
happens.

I don't know 100%, but it looks like the "authenticated users"
group is a
member of the "administrators" group. This means that anyone who
logs in
to the workstation is an administrator. It's a complete lack of
security,
but it's also very common (in my experience) for Windows
workstations.

I'm guessing that the PG installer is being anal and refusing to
allow you
to install on such a poorly configured system, but that part I
don't know.

My suggestion would be to fix the users/groups on the Windows
system so there
is a special administrative user, then remove authenticated users
from the
administrator group.

When I saw this error I immediately went to the "Local Users and
Groups" control
panel to see if I could figure out what the heck it was talking
about, and I
swear there is no group called "Authenticated Users". That's
what's so
baffling
about this, apart from the incomplete error message.

Ahh ... IIRC, this isn't a _real_ group, it's kind of a pseudo-
group that
Windows evaluates on the fly to distinguish between users who have
authenticated, and people who are using the system without having
logged
in (the fact that such a thing is possible at all is disturbing ...)

What's really disturbing is that someone in our IT department set up
this machine, and its policies are so screwed up I can't even install
a dbms.

It's a shame -- I get the impression that the rest of that error
message
would help you fix the issue, but I don't remember what you can do
about
it. Probably something to do with group policy, or some other setting
in the security realm.

I'm kind of surprised that this installer could make it through a
test cycle with an error message that's not legible. Is there any
chance this error might be logged somewhere?

On 2 Mar 2007 at 16:33, dlivesay@covad.net wrote:

Quoting Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com>:

In response to dlivesay@covad.net:

<snip>

"Your local 'Administrators' group contains 'Authenticated Users'.
This is a common configuration error that causes security issues. For this
reason, Postgr"

<snip>

Does anybody know what the rest of this message might be? Bonus
points if you
can explain what it means, and especially if you can explain what to
do about
it.

I suspect this is more a WIndows problem than a PostgreSQL problem, but I'm
afraid I don't know that much about Windows. I'm a Mac/Unix kind of
guy, and I
try to avoid using WIndows whenever possible because this kind of
stuff always
happens.

I don't know 100%, but it looks like the "authenticated users" group is a
member of the "administrators" group. This means that anyone who logs in
to the workstation is an administrator. It's a complete lack of security,
but it's also very common (in my experience) for Windows workstations.

I'm guessing that the PG installer is being anal and refusing to allow you
to install on such a poorly configured system, but that part I don't know.

My suggestion would be to fix the users/groups on the Windows system so there
is a special administrative user, then remove authenticated users from the
administrator group.

When I saw this error I immediately went to the "Local Users and
Groups" control
panel to see if I could figure out what the heck it was talking about, and I
swear there is no group called "Authenticated Users". That's what's so
baffling
about this, apart from the incomplete error message.

Authenticated users is a psuedogroup generated internally. You won't find
it listed as a group perse, but if you go to the Administrators group and
check it's membership you will see it listed there.

-jcm

On Mar 2, 2007, at 8:47 PM, Jan Muszynski wrote:

On 2 Mar 2007 at 16:33, dlivesay@covad.net wrote:

Quoting Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com>:

In response to dlivesay@covad.net:

<snip>

"Your local 'Administrators' group contains 'Authenticated Users'.
This is a common configuration error that causes security
issues. For this
reason, Postgr"

<snip>

Does anybody know what the rest of this message might be? Bonus
points if you
can explain what it means, and especially if you can explain
what to
do about
it.

I suspect this is more a WIndows problem than a PostgreSQL
problem, but I'm
afraid I don't know that much about Windows. I'm a Mac/Unix kind of
guy, and I
try to avoid using WIndows whenever possible because this kind of
stuff always
happens.

I don't know 100%, but it looks like the "authenticated users"
group is a
member of the "administrators" group. This means that anyone who
logs in
to the workstation is an administrator. It's a complete lack of
security,
but it's also very common (in my experience) for Windows
workstations.

I'm guessing that the PG installer is being anal and refusing to
allow you
to install on such a poorly configured system, but that part I
don't know.

My suggestion would be to fix the users/groups on the Windows
system so there
is a special administrative user, then remove authenticated users
from the
administrator group.

When I saw this error I immediately went to the "Local Users and
Groups" control
panel to see if I could figure out what the heck it was talking
about, and I
swear there is no group called "Authenticated Users". That's
what's so
baffling
about this, apart from the incomplete error message.

Authenticated users is a psuedogroup generated internally. You
won't find
it listed as a group perse, but if you go to the Administrators
group and
check it's membership you will see it listed there.

I checked that and didn't see it there.

Bill Moran wrote:

It's a shame -- I get the impression that the rest of that error message
would help you fix the issue, but I don't remember what you can do about
it. Probably something to do with group policy, or some other setting
in the security realm.

Try CTRL + C while focus on the error dialog, then paste to notepad.
That usually works.

--
Best regards,
Hannes Dorbath

Hannes Dorbath wrote:

Bill Moran wrote:

It's a shame -- I get the impression that the rest of that error message
would help you fix the issue, but I don't remember what you can do about
it. Probably something to do with group policy, or some other setting
in the security realm.

Try CTRL + C while focus on the error dialog, then paste to notepad.
That usually works.

FWIW, the complete message comes out of this line:
snwprintf(errmsg,errsize,__("Your local '%s' group contains
'%S'.\n\nThis is a common configuration error that causes security
issues. For this reason, PostgreSQL will not run until this error has
been corrected."),
groupname, lookforsids[j].friendlyname);

(sorry about the linebreaks)

First of all, we should enlarge that buffer :)

But second, I think we can remove the check altogether, now that we in
8.2 will actually start from such an account. We did remove the check
for the actual account being in there... Dave, do you agree?

//Magnus