In some places, the code expect a user variable to be a User instance, but is given a string

[ietf-svn-bot]

owner:olau@iola.dk resolution_fixed type_defect | by henrik@levkowetz.com

---

When this bug is triggered, Django actually doesn't manage to catch the
exception and email a stack trace, so after I put in a temporary workaround
to avoid the crash, it turns out I don't have a stack trace to show you.

Without the patches below, this is triggered by for instance /doc/rfc4515/

It is likely that this bug occurs after the bug in ticket #767 is tickled.

Workarounds to get the appropriate page to show:

Index: ietf/ietfworkflows/accounts.py
===================================================================
--- ietf/ietfworkflows/accounts.py	(revision 3975)
+++ ietf/ietfworkflows/accounts.py	(working copy)
@@ -53,6 +53,8 @@
 def is_chair_of_streamREDESIGN(user, stream):
     if is_secretariat(user):
         return True
+    if isinstance(user, basestring):
+        return False
     return user.is_authenticated() and bool(Role.objects.filter(group__acronym=stream.slug, name="chair", person__user=user))
 
 
Index: ietf/liaisons/accountsREDESIGN.py
===================================================================
--- ietf/liaisons/accountsREDESIGN.py	(revision 3975)
+++ ietf/liaisons/accountsREDESIGN.py	(working copy)
@@ -86,6 +86,8 @@
 
 
 def is_secretariat(user):
+    if isinstance(user, basestring):
+        return False
     return user.is_authenticated() and bool(Role.objects.filter(person__user=user, name="secr", group__acronym="secretariat"))

---

Issue migrated from trac:768 at 2022-03-04 01:58:33 +0000

[ietf-svn-bot]

@olau@iola.dk commented

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Hmmm, I'm fairly sure this comes from the stream menu thing in ietf/ietfworkflows/templatetags/ietf_streams.py. There was a {% if user %} guard around the call to that in the conversion branch which was not in trunk and which I couldn't figure out why would be necessary, so when I fixed the empty menu after the migration today, I didn't keep it.

However, after some digging, I've found out I added it with this commit:

576b2ba | olau@iola.dk | 2011-11-22 21:53:18 +0100 (tir, 22 nov 2011) | 3 lines
Fix annoying bug with the stream list in the menu that made it bail
out with a mysterious traceback on 500s

Unfortunately, I have been unable to reproduce this behaviour now, it would be nice to get to the bottom of why we get a string. But I've now addd the if guard back in.

[ietf-svn-bot]

@henrik@levkowetz.com changed status from new to closed

[ietf-svn-bot]

@henrik@levkowetz.com changed resolution from `` to fixed

[ietf-svn-bot]

@henrik@levkowetz.com commented

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I've seen similar situations when there's an exception before the authentication middleware has run. I think we can take this as being a Django problem rather than something that needs a more final solution from our side. Closing this as fixed.

[ietf-svn-bot]

@henrik@levkowetz.com changed status from closed to deployed

[ietf-svn-bot]

@henrik@levkowetz.com commented

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From e6c42e7:

Guard against trying to use .is_authenticated() on a plain string. The error condition can occur when an exception has been triggered before the auth middleware has run. Related to #767 and #768.

[ietf-svn-bot]

@henrik@levkowetz.com commented

---

From 8c9404e:

Guard against trying to use .is_authenticated() on a plain string. The error condition can occur when an exception has been triggered before the auth middleware has run. Related to #767 and #768.

[ietf-svn-bot]

@henrik@levkowetz.com commented

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From 0011106:

Guard against trying to use .is_authenticated() on a plain string. The error condition can occur when an exception has been triggered before the auth middleware has run. Related to #767 and #768.