Bad Request,Your browser sent a request that this server could not...

Question

Level 1

8 points

Bad Request,Your browser sent a request that this server could not...

When using Firefox, when I attempt to login to dslreports.com and I get :

Bad Request
Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.

If I simply refresh, I notice that I have logged in. This appens on other websites and I am
not able to login to my local router. When using Safari, all works well. Firefox used
to work until the main account I was using on the computer got changed from
Administration to parental control. If I login to the current admin account, Firefox will work.

I've tried running disk permissions and clearing of the browsers cache with no luck. I also
upgraded to 10.5.4 without any change. Since changing the account the parentalcontrolsd
is guzzling a lot of CPU time. I'd rather not have to change the account back, so are there
any ideas. I have posted on the Firefox (3) forum with no takers.

Thanks,
John C.

iMAC, Mac OS X (10.5.3), 2.4Ghz iMAC

Posted on Jul 1, 2008 4:51 PM

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Answer 1

RodneyW

Level 4

3,035 points

Jul 1, 2008 5:11 PM in response to lynnejohn

Welcome to the forums! Thanks for providing such a thorough description of your problem and configuration.

That puts the focus squarely on Parental Controls. Parental Controls works by putting a [proxy server|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server] between the managed user and the internet. Unfortunately, there can be a lot of little side effects from doing this, and that is what you are experiencing.

I don't have a quick solution for this, but I do have an alternative.

What are you using Parental Controls for? If you are simply wanting to blacklist sites or filter certain material, then it might be more effective to use [OpenDNS|http://www.opendns.org].

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Answer 2

lynnejohn Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 1, 2008 6:14 PM in response to RodneyW

Thanks for the response. The real reason I changed the account over was to keep my daughter from using iChat except in her account. I needed parental control to keep this program from being run in the main account (so I thought that was the only way to do it.)

One other side note is that not only is the parentalcontrold using a lot of CPU itme but several threads
of virusbarriers are running as well (I run VirusBarrierX5).

The real quandry I have with this is that only Firefox is affected (suggesting maybe file permissions are wrong.) So if the proxy server was at the heart of the problem, then Safari would be effected too.

And to finally top this off, when I did have the account setup as administrator, I ran Safe eyes. So I'm not sure if this has something to do with it.

In the end I have reloaded OSX from DVD using Time Machine as the backup, updated to 10.5.4, fixed file permissions and removed some .plist files from the users library. None have worked.

So if I set the account back to adminstrator is there a way to block Chat from being run, or is there a fix for all this mess.

Thanks,
John C.

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Answer 3

RodneyW

Level 4

3,035 points

Jul 1, 2008 6:55 PM in response to lynnejohn

If you just want to knock out iChat, try [Little Snitch|http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html]. It is a utility that can block outbound internet connection attempts on particular ports.

Similarly, you can block iChat from receiving inbound connection attempts by blocking it in the Application Firewall.

Alternatively you could block your daughter from accessing the ichat application by using file permissions....

Firefox runs its own proxy settings, and may be adversely affected by Parental Controls. I doubt that it is file permissions. They are talked about a lot in here, but they rarely cause real problems unless you personally muck them up for system/application files.

I don't know anything about Safe Eyes (beyond their website). It will be another proxy server though.

My recommendations:

1) Set the account to Standard User - without parental controls. This will get rid of the Parental Controls overhead and should fix the firefox problem. Test this. You don't want her to have administrator access

Keep your admin password account under lock and key.

2) Test drive Little Snitch as an administrator. When you start iChat, Little Snitch will alert you to the outbound connection attempt. Block it. This will effectively stop your daughters access. If you like Little Snitch - buy it.

3) Try OpenDNS for content management controls.

Of course, it is possible that I am being a bit harsh on Parental Controls. I just don't like the overhead!

Cheers,

Rodney

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Answer 4

RodneyW

Level 4

3,035 points

Jul 1, 2008 6:56 PM in response to RodneyW

Hang on - I just reread your post... and realised that you want her to have iChat in her account only.

Why not just prevent her from accessing your account at all?

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Answer 5

lynnejohn Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 1, 2008 8:59 PM in response to RodneyW

The account is my wife's, who uses the computer the most. To ask her to login/out each time would be too much.

I did turn off parental controls and I still see parentalcontrolsd running and taking up a lot of CPU time. Also on that list are 10 virusbarriers. Even after logging out of the main account and logging into the admin account, I still see parentalcontrolsd running and using significant CPU time.

I also can't log into the local router with Safari. I have no idea why that changed.

Thanks....

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Answer 6

lynnejohn Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 1, 2008 9:11 PM in response to lynnejohn

Another note: If I check the console messages, one of the things I see is:

7/1/08 10:58:57 PM com.apple.familycontrols[6568] codesign_allocate: file is not input for the dynamic linker and can't have a code signature: /backup/Apple MAC1/Applications/iDVD.app/Contents/PlugIns/VSP_M2V_Encode.bundle/Contents/Resou rces/VEO_P_RDMODE
7/1/08 10:58:57 PM com.apple.familycontrols[6568] codesign_allocate: file is not input for the dynamic linker and can't have a code signature: /backup/Apple MAC1/Applications/iDVD.app/Contents/PlugIns/VSP_M2V_Encode.bundle/Contents/Resou rces/VEOUYVY2YUV
7/1/08 10:59:27 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.familycontrols[6568]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
7/1/08 10:59:29 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.webfilter[6588]) Exited: Terminated

There are other pieces to this but a bus error does not seem normal.

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Answer 7

lynnejohn Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 1, 2008 9:15 PM in response to lynnejohn

This is happening over and over in the console:

7/2/08 12:13:01 AM parentalcontrolsd[695] FCCreateAppSignature [605] -- * SecCodeSignerAddSignature returned: -67049 on pass: 1
7/2/08 12:13:01 AM parentalcontrolsd[695] CopyUserSigningIdentity [886] -- * CopyUserSigningIdentity: SecKeychainCopyDefault returned error -25307
7/2/08 12:13:01 AM com.apple.familycontrols[695] codesign_allocate: file is not input for the dynamic linker and can't have a code signature: /backup/Apple MAC1/Applications/iDVD.app/Contents/PlugIns/VSP_M2V_Encode.bundle/Contents/Resou rces/VEOUYVY2YUV
7/2/08 12:13:01 AM parentalcontrolsd[695] FCCreateAppSignature [605] -- * SecCodeSignerAddSignature returned: -67049 on pass: 1

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Answer 8

RodneyW

Level 4

3,035 points

Jul 2, 2008 1:27 AM in response to lynnejohn

Ok... Make sure that parental controls is disabled on all accounts, by logging in to an admin account and working your way through all user accounts carefully. Then reboot. That should kill the daemon...

Secondly, the VirusBarrier stuff is a lot of overhead for very little gain! It might also be worth disabling that until you have a configuration that you are happy with.

I have tested Little Snitch this afternoon with iChat - and it works extremely well. You can do a per user control which is very useful.

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Answer 9

lynnejohn Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 2, 2008 5:09 AM in response to RodneyW

I'll try that this evening (east coast, US).

I do find it odd that the parental controls daemon would not be shut down when I log in as admin.

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Answer 10

lynnejohn Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 2, 2008 8:42 PM in response to lynnejohn

I'm going to try and resolve the error console issue with the parental controls daemon. Hopefully Apple support can help me out. I'm going to take this route as I still need a couple things from the parental controls (It also was a touted feature of 10.5). If that fails and I have to give up on parental controls, I'll take your suggestion.

Let you know what they say.

Thanks.
John C.

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Answer 11

RodneyW

Level 4

3,035 points

Jul 2, 2008 9:00 PM in response to lynnejohn

Thanks. I'll be looking forward to hearing about that. I am hoping that Parental Controls are properly sorted out by the time I need them!

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Answer 12

lynnejohn Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 3, 2008 4:31 PM in response to RodneyW

I got off the phone with Apple and they could not do much except make an appointment with a Apple store for further troubleshooting. So I did try a few things:

1) Turned off all parental controls for each account, result: Problem gone. CPU back to normal and no parentalcontrold present.

2) Turned on parental controls for each account (except admin.), result: Problem did not reoccur. parentalcontrold running with very little cpu usage and Firefox login problem is gone! How on earth the parental controls could effect Firefox's ability to log into web sites is beyond me.

3) In the parental control menu checked the "Only Allow Selected Applications" box, result: parentalcontrold began guzzling CPU time and the console.app was reporting that the parental controls daemon crashed (see bottom of post.) It seems that as soon as this piece of the parental controls is turned on, it all
falls apart.

So as of right now parental controls are on, but I have not tried to restrict program usage. I will take this new info to the Apple store to see if they have any answers. I'll update after I get back on Sat.

John C.

7/3/08 6:48:38 PM kernel Security policy loaded: MCX App Launch (mcxalr)
7/3/08 6:48:38 PM kernel mcxalr{3} Auth provider registered. connection: 1 uid: 501 version: 1
7/3/08 6:48:51 PM com.apple.familycontrols[192] codesign_allocate: object: /backup/Apple_MAC1/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunes malformed object (inconsistent sizeofcmds field in mach header)
7/3/08 6:48:51 PM parentalcontrolsd[192] FCCreateAppSignature [605] -- * SecCodeSignerAddSignature returned: -67049 on pass: 1
7/3/08 6:49:03 PM ReportCrash[310] Formulating crash report for process parentalcontrolsd[192]
7/3/08 6:49:03 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.familycontrols[192]) Exited abnormally: Bus error

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Answer 13

RodneyW

Level 4

3,035 points

Jul 3, 2008 4:56 PM in response to lynnejohn

Well done. Nice logical steps.

3) In the parental control menu checked the "Only Allow Selected Applications" box, result: parentalcontrold began guzzling CPU time and the console.app was reporting that the parental controls daemon crashed (see bottom of post.) It seems that as soon as this piece of the parental controls is turned on, it all falls apart.

I am going to try that on my MacBook, and will post back to you. If it is a verifiable bug, then it should be reported formally to Apple.

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Answer 14

lynnejohn Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 11, 2008 10:21 PM in response to RodneyW

Well the apple store did not have any answers either. They did acknowledge that there is a problem but suggested I turn off parental controls until Apple resolves it. So as it is if I turn on parental controls only, my browser gets slow and unresponsive at times (even though I have no restrictions on web sites.) If I turn on "Only allow selected Applications" CPU activity spikes and the iMAC runs approximately 10 degrees Centigrade over its normal temp.

If anyone at Apple figures this one out, please let me know. For my personnel usage, Parental Controls is barley functional at this point.

Thanks,
John C.

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Answer 15

mays24

Level 1

0 points

Aug 18, 2008 11:27 AM in response to lynnejohn

I am having the same problem with parental controls. I teach at a high school and want to have parental controls turned on in the lab. Firefox doesn't work properly on the managed accounts.
I was just checking to see if you figured a way around using parental controls and having Firefox work properly...

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