Initial setup of Web Help Desk

Question

I am new to WHD and new to THWACK. If this is addressed somewhere else in this forum please let me know. This question is probably very basic for the WHD gurus but before I go too far in setting up WHD, I am asking this question.  I have integrated an LDAP connection between WHD and our active directory.  It has populated the clients correctly as far as I can tell.  My issue is that when I create a tech account, it requires me to enter a password for that tech account even though I connect it to the appropriate client account.  After I create the tech account, when I log out and log back in, it is requiring me to enter the password I entered manually instead of using my AD password.  How do I get WHD to authenticate against the AD password and not the password local to WHD?

I have set the authentication method to web help desk since there is not an AD or LDAP method and, according to the administrators guide, none of the other methods are for AD authentication.

Any advice or recommendations are greatly appreciated.

glisit · Answer

I've been working to deploy WHD with 21 techs and encountered this issue. As you said, when the tech account is linked to an LDAP user, you can certainly ignore the "local" username, proceed to login with the LDAP email/password. In fact, I didn't even tell the techs their local login/password, only telling them to use their LDAP account info.

However: Techs are allowed to modify their username and password info in settings, and can in fact change the password to whatever they want.  At this point, this becomes a huge security concern, particularly if your helpdesk is public-internet facing. This technically offers a way to reduce the account security by allowing techs to change their passwords (and usernames) without any limitations. I just confirmed a tech can change his password to 123, abc, or in fact - just one character.

So we can't quite ignore it unless there is a way to lockout the tech from modifying their local credentials. I'm hoping that I missed a setting, but so far I haven't found it.

typhoon87 · Answer

This is due to a change made in 12.5.1 to fix a security vulnerability. Just log in with your normal credentials as long as the client and tech account are linked, when you log off it will show the username of the tech account but other than that just ignore it.