mod_auth-any/7699: .htaccess is using /etc/passwd as AuthUserFile despite definition in .htaccess file

[Jason Nichols <je...@jcubed.com>]

>Number:         7699
>Category:       mod_auth-any
>Synopsis:       .htaccess is using /etc/passwd as AuthUserFile despite definition in .htaccess file
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    apache
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   apache
>Arrival-Date:   Thu May 10 20:30:00 PDT 2001
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     jedimaster@jcubed.com
>Release:        1.3.9
>Organization:
apache
>Environment:
Linux ns.jcubed.com 2.2.17-14 #1 Mon Feb 5 17:53:36 EST 2001 i686 unknown

[root@ns members]# telnet  jcubed.com 80
Trying 66.33.50.171...
Connected to jcubed.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
HEAD / HTTP1.0/OK

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 03:22:34 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.9 (Unix)  (Red Hat/Linux) PHP/3.0.12
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html

Connection closed by foreign host.
[root@ns members]# 
>Description:
The .htaccess file is not using the supplied AuthUserFile to get usernames/passwords.  It is reverting to the /etc/passwd file on the system.  Here is how my .htaccess file looks
##############################
AuthName "J Cubed Sandbox Members Area"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile "/home/jason/members/Sandbox"

Require valid-user
##############################

Here is the <Directory> entry for this directory:

##############################
<Directory /home/jason/www/members>
  Options All
  AllowOverride All
</Directory>
##############################

I created the password file, /home/jason/members/Sandbox using htpasswd to create a user 'test'.  This user did not work.  To make sure it was reading the correct file, I copied the /etc/passwd file over Sandbox.  I could access the directory with any user I had on the system.  I used htpasswd to add the 'test' user to this file.  It would not work.  I used htpasswd to change the password of an existing user.  The new password would not work, but the system password would still grant me access.
>How-To-Repeat:
http://sandbox.jcubed.com/members
>Fix:

>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
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