mediawiki: Login after installation is not possible

This issue was reported by multiple users running FreedomBox Pioneer Edition. The original forum post is reproduced verbatim below:


Hi!

I installed MediaWiki today on my Pioneer FreedomBox and the install itself was succesful. However, I could not login to MediaWiki. Every login attempt from Firefox (on Ubuntu 18.04) and Safari gave an error message saying (roughly) "login canceled to prevent session hijacking".

After trying a reinstallation which didn't help I found the following thread where the same error message was discussed (but here not for the login but when using the password reset button)

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Thread:Project:Support_desk/Session_Hijacking_error_after_Update_1.19.14

One of the solutions mentioned there is to include the following to LocalSettings.php:

(a) $wgMainCacheType = CACHE_ACCEL;
(b) $wgSessionCacheType = CACHE_DB;

While (a) was already included in LocalSettings.php of the FreedomBox MediaWiki installation, (b) was not. After adding (b) now the login works.

Is this a bug? Should I file an issue? Are there any unwanted consequences (e.g. regarding Security) when adding $wgSessionCacheType = CACHE_DB?

Thanks! Chris


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