Re: I'd love to know what the rest of this error message is. - Mailing list pgsql-general

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