[Eril-l] Proquest EbookCentral, single signon, ezproxy - question about weird problem

[Melissa Belvadi]

I'm guessing you are using the A directive in ezproxy to keep on-campus
users proxied but without prompting?
We had some of that on, but turned it off for our Proquest EbookCentral
stanza as part of testing this, and it didn't seem to have any effect.
Also we see the problem when we carefully text with completely unproxied
URLs, so the proxy server stanza is playing no role at all, at least not in
the first clicks - we have no idea what Proquest is saying/getting from our
proxy server when they do their SSO thing.

Melissa Belvadi
Collections Librarian
University of Prince Edward Island
mbelvadi at upei.ca
<http://www.google-analytics.com/collect?v=1&tid=UA-5663860-1&cid=109230&t=event&ec=email&ea=open&el=mbelvadi%40upei.ca&cs=newsletter&cm=email&cn=PLP>
 902-566-0581
my public calendar
<http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=mbelvadi%40upei.ca&ctz=America/Halifax&mode=week>
Make an appointment <https://mbelvadi.youcanbook.me/>




On Fri, Sep 28, 2018 at 3:43 PM, Fox, Linda J. <FoxLJ at umkc.edu> wrote:

> Hi, Melissa,
>
>
>
> We’re seeing a problem that sounds remarkably similar to what you
> describe.  We’ve harrowed it down to a specific circumstance.  Even though
> we don’t have to proxy the links to Ebook Central, we choose to do so for
> the sake of consistency.  We can reliably trigger this behavior if we are
> logged into our campus network.  We have configured EZproxy not to prompt
> for credentials when users are on the campus network because they have
> already authenticated at that point.  So if I follow a proxied link to
> another database, say Academic Search Complete, I’m automatically “logged
> in” to the proxy server.  If I then follow a link to Ebook Central, the
> proxy server “knows” that I’ve already authenticated, and doesn’t prompt me
> for my username and password.  It instead passes along some sort of generic
> username—and like you it always seems to be the same one.  If I actually
> log out of the proxy server and then link to the same ebook, I am prompted
> to log in, and the username is different.
>
>
>
> We have been working with ProQuest on this for months, with no real
> progress.  I was just thinking about touching base with our EZproxy expert
> to where the ticket is.  If I learn anything more, I’ll pass it along.
>
>
>
> Linda
>
>
>
> Linda Fox
> Senior Library Information Specialist
> UMKC University Libraries
> Miller Nichols Library Room 304
> <https://maps.google.com/?q=Room+304+%0D%0A800+E+51&entry=gmail&source=g>
> 800 E 51st Street
> Kansas City, MO  64110
>
> https://library.umkc.edu
> (816) 235-5290
> fax: (816) 235-5531
>
> foxlj at umkc.edu
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Eril-l <eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org> *On Behalf Of *Melissa
> Belvadi
> *Sent:* Friday, September 28, 2018 10:18 AM
> *To:* eril-l <eril-l at lists.eril-l.org>
> *Subject:* [Eril-l] Proquest EbookCentral, single signon, ezproxy -
> question about weird problem
>
>
>
> Hi, I'm working with Proquest support on this but so far we're confused
> and I'm hoping someone else ran into this and found a solution.
>
>
>
> This would only apply if you have Proquest Ebook Central configured to use
> their Single SignOn service.  That enables users on campus to get from our
> ezproxy server (without being bothered to login) a hashed identity code so
> they can use all of the interface features of someone with an account in
> the platform, without actually making one and revealing their identity.
>
>
>
> What Proquest apparently does is talk to our proxy server, even when the
> link is not proxied and the user is on campus, to get that hashed identity
> code. The user is not prompted for a username/password in this, so I'm not
> sure how ezproxy could even be doing this.
>
>
>
> We're finding that multiple users are getting the same hashed identity.
> The way this showed up is when one staff member used up most of the
> allocation of pages that could be downloaded, and another staff member on a
> different computer accessed the same book, they saw the allocation already
> used up.  They brought it to me, where I verified on my own computer in
> three different web browsers the same problem.  You can see the problem by
> looking in settings-profile and note the same hashed-garbage username in
> all of the affected sessions throughout all those different computers and
> browsers.
>
>
>
> Have any of you seen this before and if so, did you find a solution short
> of abandoning the SSO service from Proquest?
>
>
>
> Melissa Belvadi
>
> Collections Librarian
>
> University of Prince Edward Island
>
> mbelvadi at upei.ca 902-566-0581
>
> my public calendar
> <http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=mbelvadi%40upei.ca&ctz=America/Halifax&mode=week>
>
> Make an appointment <https://mbelvadi.youcanbook.me/>
>
>
>
>
>
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