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svnauthenticationauthorizationbasic-authenticationvisualsvn-server

Commit to VisualSVN fails auth rejected

I have trouble making commits to a subversion repository powered by VisualSVN server. I can checkout code and update, so the username and password I am using is correct. However, when I am trying to make a commit, I get consistent Authorization failures. I have tried non-interactive, interactive, command line, svnX, Versions, all with the same result.

svn: Commit failed (details follow):
svn: MKACTIVITY of 'xxxxxx/4a1e3c7e-8efd-47f0-abf6-80239ee625c8': authorization failed: Could not authenticate to server: rejected Basic challenge

The repository is obviously running under https.

I have been using other SVN repositories from the command line for years, and never had this problem. I have read many posts about this issue, but they all had issues with the authentication being locally stored by subversion being invalid, I cleared those caches, but nothing.

Especially since checkout and updates work, I am stumped. I can also log in into the Windows server that VisualSVN server is running on with the same credentials.

VisualSVN server version is 2.5.1 svn version 1.6.17 (r1128011) running on OSX

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Solution

  • You should not be confused by the error wording. While one of the first things the error states is that the authorization failed the real informative part here is Could not authenticate to server: rejected Basic challenge.

    Such behavior is very hard to troubleshoot without looking at VisualSVN Server log BTW.

    When you see the error rejected Basic challenge it makes sense to troubleshoot the issue following a simple check-list:

    1. [Cpt. Obvious Mode ON] Check that the password is valid. You can see the error after entering an incorrect password 3 times in a row,

    2. Double-check that the password does not contain non-ASCII characters (e.g. £, ü, ä etc.). You can login to Windows with a password with non-ASCII symbols however Basic authentication type does not support non-ASCII chars. You can workaround the issue by switching to Integrated Windows Authentication however that's another question.

    If none of the above steps help you need to troubleshoot the behavior on a deeper level:

    1. Check VisualSVN Server log. What get's logged on an unsuccessful authentication attempt?

    2. Check Windows Security log. You can see relevant events there which can clarify the behavior. E.g. you can see there an error 0xC0000064 that is caused by a Windows Server 2003 bug.