SSL Admin logs out

**paul-h** · 27 Oct 2010, 01:40 AM

When I configure my site to use SSL for the admin login, I am able to log in successfully but when I select any item from any of the admin menus, I am returned to the admin login page and have to log in again. This happens every time I log in.

I have looked at the web space error logs and there is nothing reported in there. The server is Linux / apache.

If I reconfigure my site to disable SSL for the admin login, everything works fine and I can log in and select any item from the menus without any problem.

Does anyone have any suggestions why this might be happening or where else I can look to try and debug this?

TIA

Paul

**aozhaver** · 27 Oct 2010, 01:51 AM

I had the EXACT same problem! You are using shared SSL cert. - DONT! Zen Cart doesnt like it. Do yourself a favour and buy one I saw some on that GoDaddy today for like less than $30- Save the heartache and get your business properly protected with 256 bit dedicated SSL cert.

**Ajeh** · 27 Oct 2010, 04:24 AM

While I do recommend buying a secure certificate ... Zen Cart works fine with shared certificates when they are setup correctly ...

Are you able to login/create account on the Catalog? And can you then navigate back and forth between the secure and non-secure pages?

**aozhaver** · 27 Oct 2010, 11:21 AM

Dear Ajeh,

There IS a real issue with shared SSL. There are many posts dotted all over about this "login loop". I tried really hard for 2 days reading through the forums and googling this issue and working closely with my webhost, that have AMAZING support which is totally dummy proof, still I only managed to dig up more dust on the issue and it wouldnt go away.

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=164477

I really did want to save the money

but in the end of the day I felt that if there was one place I might as well spend a little it was security

Maybe its time for a detailed look at the issue of this login loop, the root causes and writing a thorough guide on the issue. I would do it myself ofcourse, and not suggest even more work for you, if only I had 1% of your technical knowledge, which I obviously don't.

**Ajeh** · 27 Oct 2010, 08:19 PM

The only time the shared SSL does not work is when:

1 it is not setup correctly by the Hosting provider

2 Browser issues usually, old/bad cookies, cache etc. from trying to get it setup correctly

I, and the rest of the team, have used shared SSL on a zillion sites without a problem ...

Again, we do prefer proper dedicated secure certificates, but it is not a requirement to use Zen Cart in a secure environment ...

**paul-h** · 27 Oct 2010, 09:20 PM

Thanks for the pointers but I did actually buy my own SSL certificate. It was working correctly when I first installed Zen cart but has since stopped working correctly.

I haven't yet tried to set up a test customer account to see if SSL works from thatside.

Perhaps one thing I should add - my ISP set up a separate web space and domain for the SSL to work so a link had to be created to the store location from the SSL secure folder. However, this did seem to be working correctly when it was first set up.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Paul

**Ajeh** · 27 Oct 2010, 09:27 PM

Check your Catalog and if the secure pages work right ...

If so, if you could post the files from the server, without your username, password or secret /admin directory name:
/includes/configure.php
/admin/includes/configure.php

we can peek and see if you have configuration issues ...

**paul-h** · 27 Oct 2010, 09:45 PM

I have now tried using a test account and the SSL appears to be working for normal users. Using Firefox, I get a padlock icon when I go to checkout but it appears with a red exclamation over it and the message "Warning: Contains unauthenticated content" which I assume is because the page is a combination of secure and non-secure elements?

It looks like this issue is just with the site admin and it wasn't there when I first installed 1.3.9a. It seemed to appear after one of the subsequent patches. I'm now patched up to 1.3.9g

Any ideas?

Thanks

Paul