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Q161400: Authenticated Users Cannot Query Secured Documents

Article: Q161400
Product(s): Internet Information Server
Version(s): WINNT: 1.1,2.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): 
Last Modified: 05-MAY-1999

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Index Server versions 1.1, 2.0 
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SYMPTOMS
========

If the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) is configured to allow
Anonymous access and either Basic authentication or Microsoft Windows NT
Challenge Response authentication, and it contains both a secured virtual
directory and an authentication virtual directory, one of the following may
occur:

- You can authenticate against a secure HTML query page and perform the query,
  but only the documents in the unsecured directory are returned as a result of
  the query.

  -Or-

- You can authenticate against a secure HTML query page and retrieve the
  documents from a secured directory, but for a certain period of time, you can
  only retrieve unsecured documents.

CAUSE
=====

If the Anonymous user has access to the .IDQ file, then the browser does not
pass the authentication header along with the GET or POST. This causes the .IDQ
file to be run in the context of the anonymous user account. Running the .IDQ
file in the Anonymous user's context only allows the unsecured documents to be
retrieved.

NOTE: If you are using ASP files to query in Index Server 2.0, the ASP files also
need to be secured.

WORKAROUND
==========

Create a separate .IDQ file for the authenticated users and remove the Anonymous
user account from the Windows NT NTFS file permissions of that file. This will
cause the browser to send the authentication header with the GET or the POST,
ensuring that the Index Server can identify who is logged on. Once the Index
Server knows who is logged on, then you can retrieve secured documents reliably.

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Keywords          :  
Technology        : kbIdxServSearch kbAudDeveloper kbIdxServ110 kbIdxServ200
Version           : WINNT: 1.1,2.0
Hardware          : ALPHA x86
Issue type        : kbprb

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