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Posted to users@subversion.apache.org by frame <xs...@yahoo.com> on 2012/05/03 19:34:08 UTC

How to store new password so no need to enter every time?

We use Subversion on Linux. Recently, don't know what I did(one thing for 
sure, I have changed my password),  every time when I check in my commits, 
it always ask for my password. After typing in my password, then I can 
check in. It is very in-convenient for me. It was not this way in the past.

Some of my team-mates also have this "problem", and some don't.

I have googled and looked into .subversion/config file, played various 
things. The "problem" still exists.

Thank you very much for your help.

Re: How to store new password so no need to enter every time?

Posted by Nico Kadel-Garcia <nk...@gmail.com>.
On Sat, May 5, 2012 at 7:16 AM, Stefan Sperling <st...@elego.de> wrote:

> On Sat, May 05, 2012 at 07:06:27AM -0400, Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:
> > Well, yes. There are SSL key based authentication methods, for example.
> And
> > in theory, Kerberos can work out. Unfortunately, few small sites set up
> > Kerberos, and even sites that do don't mandate the use of the keys. Let's
> > actually look at the RHEL 6 mod_auth_kerb settings, shall we?
>
> > #<Location /private>
> > #  SSLRequireSSL
> > #  AuthType Kerberos
> > #  AuthName "Kerberos Login"
> > #  KrbMethodNegotiate On
> > #  KrbMethodK5Passwd Off
> > #  KrbAuthRealms EXAMPLE.COM
> > #  Krb5KeyTab /etc/httpd/conf/keytab
> > #  require valid-user
> > #</Location>
> > Not active by default nor configuerd for Subversion, that's OK.
> >
> > KrbMedhodK5Passwd Off:, that prevents the use of pure password negotiaton
> > and forces clients to use Kerberos tickets. Except...... if you have
> RHEL 4
> > systems, or Subversion clients from older but still active systems,
> you're
> > screwed and must use password negotiation. That means password storage on
> > the client, of your *Kerberos passwords!!!!!*
>
> The root of this problem clearly is people using severely outdated
> software. If they do this, then they must live with the feature set
> that was available at the time the now outdated software was current.
>
And they will continue to do so. I've made a fair chunk of my salary in the
last 10 years upgrading systems. And reliance on a contemporary and
underdocumented feature set for basic software security in older
environments is.... well, it's quite dangerous to unsuspecting admins.


> > Note the unlisted default setting "KrbAuthoritative On". That one, set to
> > off, allows authentication to be passwd to other modules.
>
> Yes, you can chain them. What's your point? That people would
> inadvertantly keep entering a wrong password if the server is set
> up incorrectly?
>
No, no. That in many production and development environments they'd be
unable to use the sophisticated features that might help secure HTTP or
HTTPS based access. So they'll either let it fall through to
non-properly-Kerberized access and wind up with plain text passwords, or
refuse to use the Kerberized access in the first place, and wind up right
back at the start of keeping their passwords in local clear text and having
to manage those.

I'm sorry to say that even in a properly Kerberized environment, the use of
"> #  KrbMethodK5Passwd Off" is not as common as we'd like.


> > Also note: if the user is not in Kerberos, this becomes unusuable. Many
> > system accounts, such as "named" and "root", would benefit from
> centralized
> > source control access to a read-only repository. (I'm preseint about just
> > such a setup for BIND in June.) Setting up Kerberos authentication for
> > system rather than user accounts becomes.... an adventure that could
> > require a lot of thought, especially for unattended operations.
>
> That is correct. Single-sign on is not very easy in the non-interactive
> case because, well, somebody has to sign on :)
> Setting up authenticated non-interactive access is always a bit tricky.
>
> That's one of the reasons I prefer svn+ssh: it's possible to enable an
`ssh-agent`, especially with tools like "keychain", that will easily load
and preserve such a key in the local environment.


> > So it's potentially *better* to use Kerberos, but it does present
> > configuration issues. It's certainly not plug and play, and it's very
> easy
> > for people to wind up storing their passwords in the clear again, only
> this
> > time tied to their Kerberos passwords.
>
> I agree. However, your argument amounts to something like "if you create
> a subversion repository, never make backups, and then some day rm -rf
> the repository... you will lose all your data and cry". Well, yes, of
> course.
> If people don't use the system as intended, and as appropriate for their
> use cases, then what can the developers do to help them?
>
>
>
No, I'm saying "This security approach breaks down for this long list of
invividual problem cases". And it's partly why I urge the use of svn+ssh
based access, which does serve almost all the same needs but without the
same vulnerabilities. In the last six years, *none* of the multiple
Subversion server environments I've dealt with have been suitable for this
kind of Kerberized access, usually due to the need for unattended access
but often due to out of date client environments.

That sort of thing is why I've been publishing to Repoforge the backports
for RHEL 4 and RHEL 5 of current Subversions. It makes gnome-keyring
available for RHEL, and it makes subversion 1.6 and subversion 1.7
avaialble for RHEL 4, so that people will at least be *asked* before they
store plain text passwords.

Re: How to store new password so no need to enter every time?

Posted by Stefan Sperling <st...@elego.de>.
On Sat, May 05, 2012 at 07:06:27AM -0400, Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:
> Well, yes. There are SSL key based authentication methods, for example. And
> in theory, Kerberos can work out. Unfortunately, few small sites set up
> Kerberos, and even sites that do don't mandate the use of the keys. Let's
> actually look at the RHEL 6 mod_auth_kerb settings, shall we?
> 
> 
> #<Location /private>
> #  SSLRequireSSL
> #  AuthType Kerberos
> #  AuthName "Kerberos Login"
> #  KrbMethodNegotiate On
> #  KrbMethodK5Passwd Off
> #  KrbAuthRealms EXAMPLE.COM
> #  Krb5KeyTab /etc/httpd/conf/keytab
> #  require valid-user
> #</Location>
> Not active by default nor configuerd for Subversion, that's OK.
> 
> KrbMedhodK5Passwd Off:, that prevents the use of pure password negotiaton
> and forces clients to use Kerberos tickets. Except...... if you have RHEL 4
> systems, or Subversion clients from older but still active systems, you're
> screwed and must use password negotiation. That means password storage on
> the client, of your *Kerberos passwords!!!!!*

The root of this problem clearly is people using severely outdated
software. If they do this, then they must live with the feature set
that was available at the time the now outdated software was current.

> Note the unlisted default setting "KrbAuthoritative On". That one, set to
> off, allows authentication to be passwd to other modules.

Yes, you can chain them. What's your point? That people would
inadvertantly keep entering a wrong password if the server is set
up incorrectly?

> Also note: if the user is not in Kerberos, this becomes unusuable. Many
> system accounts, such as "named" and "root", would benefit from centralized
> source control access to a read-only repository. (I'm preseint about just
> such a setup for BIND in June.) Setting up Kerberos authentication for
> system rather than user accounts becomes.... an adventure that could
> require a lot of thought, especially for unattended operations.

That is correct. Single-sign on is not very easy in the non-interactive
case because, well, somebody has to sign on :)
Setting up authenticated non-interactive access is always a bit tricky.

> So it's potentially *better* to use Kerberos, but it does present
> configuration issues. It's certainly not plug and play, and it's very easy
> for people to wind up storing their passwords in the clear again, only this
> time tied to their Kerberos passwords.

I agree. However, your argument amounts to something like "if you create
a subversion repository, never make backups, and then some day rm -rf
the repository... you will lose all your data and cry". Well, yes, of course.
If people don't use the system as intended, and as appropriate for their
use cases, then what can the developers do to help them?

Re: How to store new password so no need to enter every time?

Posted by Nico Kadel-Garcia <nk...@gmail.com>.
On Sat, May 5, 2012 at 6:25 AM, Stefan Sperling <st...@elego.de> wrote:

> On Fri, May 04, 2012 at 11:17:58PM -0400, Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:
> > Now, all that said: I *loathe* HTTP/HTTPS password based acces, because
> > there is no way to prevent your clients form storing passwords locally on
> > Linux or UNIX hosts. They don't *have* to use the kwallet or
> gnome-keyring
> > tools, and you can't make them without snooping on them all the time.
>
> There are more authentication options available in httpd than just
> BasicAuth.
>
> Some are single-sign on solutions and don't require any password at all.
> Kerberos and SSPI for example. If httpd admins configure the server with
> one of these authentication options no password will ever be stored.
> Alas, whether you can use these options depends on the existing
> infrastructure -- same story with SSH though.
>
Well, yes. There are SSL key based authentication methods, for example. And
in theory, Kerberos can work out. Unfortunately, few small sites set up
Kerberos, and even sites that do don't mandate the use of the keys. Let's
actually look at the RHEL 6 mod_auth_kerb settings, shall we?


#<Location /private>
#  SSLRequireSSL
#  AuthType Kerberos
#  AuthName "Kerberos Login"
#  KrbMethodNegotiate On
#  KrbMethodK5Passwd Off
#  KrbAuthRealms EXAMPLE.COM
#  Krb5KeyTab /etc/httpd/conf/keytab
#  require valid-user
#</Location>
Not active by default nor configuerd for Subversion, that's OK.

KrbMedhodK5Passwd Off:, that prevents the use of pure password negotiaton
and forces clients to use Kerberos tickets. Except...... if you have RHEL 4
systems, or Subversion clients from older but still active systems, you're
screwed and must use password negotiation. That means password storage on
the client, of your *Kerberos passwords!!!!!*

Note the unlisted default setting "KrbAuthoritative On". That one, set to
off, allows authentication to be passwd to other modules.

Also note: if the user is not in Kerberos, this becomes unusuable. Many
system accounts, such as "named" and "root", would benefit from centralized
source control access to a read-only repository. (I'm preseint about just
such a setup for BIND in June.) Setting up Kerberos authentication for
system rather than user accounts becomes.... an adventure that could
require a lot of thought, especially for unattended operations.

So it's potentially *better* to use Kerberos, but it does present
configuration issues. It's certainly not plug and play, and it's very easy
for people to wind up storing their passwords in the clear again, only this
time tied to their Kerberos passwords.

Re: How to store new password so no need to enter every time?

Posted by Stefan Sperling <st...@elego.de>.
On Fri, May 04, 2012 at 11:17:58PM -0400, Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:
> Now, all that said: I *loathe* HTTP/HTTPS password based acces, because
> there is no way to prevent your clients form storing passwords locally on
> Linux or UNIX hosts. They don't *have* to use the kwallet or gnome-keyring
> tools, and you can't make them without snooping on them all the time.

There are more authentication options available in httpd than just BasicAuth. 

Some are single-sign on solutions and don't require any password at all.
Kerberos and SSPI for example. If httpd admins configure the server with
one of these authentication options no password will ever be stored.
Alas, whether you can use these options depends on the existing
infrastructure -- same story with SSH though.

Re: How to store new password so no need to enter every time?

Posted by Nico Kadel-Garcia <nk...@gmail.com>.
On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 9:59 AM, Stefan Sperling <st...@elego.de> wrote:

> On Fri, May 04, 2012 at 06:48:10AM -0700, frame wrote:
> >
> >
> > On Thursday, May 3, 2012 3:47:13 PM UTC-4, Stefan Sperling wrote:
> > >
> > > On Thu, May 03, 2012 at 12:41:38PM -0700, frame wrote:
> > > > I saw the password is saved in the file within
> > > .subversion/auth/svn.simple
> > > > directory. Is that correct? How can I have it saved in encrypted
> format?
> > > Is
> > > > this can be achieved by my personal or the system admin group?
> > >
> > > You would need to configure gnome-keyring or kwallet (see the
> > > 'password-stores' option in the 'config' file). I don't know
> > > whether those programs are available for your linux distro.
> > > They are third-party password encryption tools that Subversion
> > > can optionally make use of.
> > >
> > > Our system admin is against saving password in plain text format. So, I
> > have to pursue encryption format way. In my .subversion/config:
> > ### Section for configuring external helper applications.
> > password-stores =
> >
> > So 'password-stores' option is empty. We use Red Hat Linux 5.8. Can you
> > help more? Thank you.
>
> I don't know if gnome-keyring or kwallet are available in Red Hat
> Linux 5.8, and whether or not support for these features was compiled
> into Subversion by the Red Hat packagers. Somebody else on this list
> may know. Or you might want to ask Red Hat directly.
>
>
It's in the pipeline over at Repoforge. If you want to jump the gun, take a
look at my buildable hooks at
http://www.github.com/nkadel/subversion-1.6.18-srpm/ or the 1.7.4 tools
there.

I'd also very, very strongly recommend updating to RHEL 6 or a free rebuild
of that, with these tools already built-in. (I like Scientific Linux these
days, for a whole stack of reasons.)

If Red Hat 5.8 doesn't ship Subversion with gnome-keyring or kwallet
> support, you'll have to type the password or ask your admin to upgrade
> to a newer version of Red Hat or use a different Liunx distribution.
> Or you might find a build of Subversion for your Red Hat system that
> has these features enabled -- a good starting point for your search
> would be http://subversion.apache.org/packages.html
>

See above as well.

Now, all that said: I *loathe* HTTP/HTTPS password based acces, because
there is no way to prevent your clients form storing passwords locally on
Linux or UNIX hosts. They don't *have* to use the kwallet or gnome-keyring
tools, and you can't make them without snooping on them all the time.
Version 1.6 of Subversion finally started asking before storing them, but
earlier versions did not even bother to ask. This is why I'm a strong
proponent of svn+ssh access, as supported in many public repositories such
as Sourceforge. It prevents the "security is the client's problem" and the
"if you don't trust the machine you're working on,, you shouldn't be using
it" approaches to security.

All we can do is provide these features. If packagers you obtain
> Subversion from disable these features or ship outdated versions,
> the Subversion project cannot help you.
>

It's also not feasible to backport them to some still supported operating
systems. I can vouch for the difficulties of getting them into RHEL 4, for
example, and RHEL 5 wasn't a picnic.

Re: How to store new password so no need to enter every time?

Posted by Mark Phippard <ma...@gmail.com>.
On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 9:59 AM, Stefan Sperling <st...@elego.de> wrote:
> I don't know if gnome-keyring or kwallet are available in Red Hat
> Linux 5.8, and whether or not support for these features was compiled
> into Subversion by the Red Hat packagers. Somebody else on this list
> may know. Or you might want to ask Red Hat directly.
>
> If Red Hat 5.8 doesn't ship Subversion with gnome-keyring or kwallet
> support, you'll have to type the password or ask your admin to upgrade
> to a newer version of Red Hat or use a different Liunx distribution.
> Or you might find a build of Subversion for your Red Hat system that
> has these features enabled -- a good starting point for your search
> would be http://subversion.apache.org/packages.html

Red Hat 5.8 includes a suitable version of gnome-keyring.  The RPM
that CollabNet provides includes support for GNOME keyring as well as
a command line tool for managing the keyring (for users that are not
using a GUI desktop).

http://www.collab.net/downloads/subversion/linux.html

I seem to recall you were asking questions about Subclipse earlier.
Note that the Subversion GNOME keyring feature does not work from
Eclipse and that Subclipse will force you to disable it in your
config.

http://subversion.tigris.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=3498

However, you can point Subclipse at a custom location for the
configuration if you want to use GNOME keyring with your command line.

-- 
Thanks

Mark Phippard
http://markphip.blogspot.com/

Re: How to store new password so no need to enter every time?

Posted by Stefan Sperling <st...@elego.de>.
On Fri, May 04, 2012 at 06:48:10AM -0700, frame wrote:
> 
> 
> On Thursday, May 3, 2012 3:47:13 PM UTC-4, Stefan Sperling wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, May 03, 2012 at 12:41:38PM -0700, frame wrote: 
> > > I saw the password is saved in the file within 
> > .subversion/auth/svn.simple 
> > > directory. Is that correct? How can I have it saved in encrypted format? 
> > Is 
> > > this can be achieved by my personal or the system admin group? 
> >
> > You would need to configure gnome-keyring or kwallet (see the 
> > 'password-stores' option in the 'config' file). I don't know 
> > whether those programs are available for your linux distro. 
> > They are third-party password encryption tools that Subversion 
> > can optionally make use of. 
> >
> > Our system admin is against saving password in plain text format. So, I 
> have to pursue encryption format way. In my .subversion/config:
> ### Section for configuring external helper applications.
> password-stores =
>  
> So 'password-stores' option is empty. We use Red Hat Linux 5.8. Can you 
> help more? Thank you.

I don't know if gnome-keyring or kwallet are available in Red Hat
Linux 5.8, and whether or not support for these features was compiled
into Subversion by the Red Hat packagers. Somebody else on this list
may know. Or you might want to ask Red Hat directly.

If Red Hat 5.8 doesn't ship Subversion with gnome-keyring or kwallet
support, you'll have to type the password or ask your admin to upgrade
to a newer version of Red Hat or use a different Liunx distribution.
Or you might find a build of Subversion for your Red Hat system that
has these features enabled -- a good starting point for your search
would be http://subversion.apache.org/packages.html

All we can do is provide these features. If packagers you obtain
Subversion from disable these features or ship outdated versions,
the Subversion project cannot help you.

Re: How to store new password so no need to enter every time?

Posted by frame <xs...@yahoo.com>.

On Thursday, May 3, 2012 3:47:13 PM UTC-4, Stefan Sperling wrote:
>
> On Thu, May 03, 2012 at 12:41:38PM -0700, frame wrote: 
> > I saw the password is saved in the file within 
> .subversion/auth/svn.simple 
> > directory. Is that correct? How can I have it saved in encrypted format? 
> Is 
> > this can be achieved by my personal or the system admin group? 
>
> You would need to configure gnome-keyring or kwallet (see the 
> 'password-stores' option in the 'config' file). I don't know 
> whether those programs are available for your linux distro. 
> They are third-party password encryption tools that Subversion 
> can optionally make use of. 
>
> Our system admin is against saving password in plain text format. So, I 
have to pursue encryption format way. In my .subversion/config:
### Section for configuring external helper applications.
password-stores =
 
So 'password-stores' option is empty. We use Red Hat Linux 5.8. Can you 
help more? Thank you.

Re: How to store new password so no need to enter every time?

Posted by Stefan Sperling <st...@elego.de>.
On Thu, May 03, 2012 at 12:41:38PM -0700, frame wrote:
> I saw the password is saved in the file within .subversion/auth/svn.simple 
> directory. Is that correct? How can I have it saved in encrypted format? Is 
> this can be achieved by my personal or the system admin group?

You would need to configure gnome-keyring or kwallet (see the
'password-stores' option in the 'config' file). I don't know
whether those programs are available for your linux distro.
They are third-party password encryption tools that Subversion
can optionally make use of.

> Thank you very much for all the help.

You're welcome :)

Re: How to store new password so no need to enter every time?

Posted by frame <xs...@yahoo.com>.
Great. Following your instruction, I have added the following line in my 
.subversion/servers file:

store-plaintext-passwords = ask

I tried "svn ls https://xxx". After typing the password at the prompt, I 
got these messages:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
ATTENTION!  Your password for authentication realm:

   <https://xxxx> Subversion Server

can only be stored to disk unencrypted!  You are advised to configure
your system so that Subversion can store passwords encrypted, if
possible.  See the documentation for details.

You can avoid future appearances of this warning by setting the value
of the 'store-plaintext-passwords' option to either 'yes' or 'no' in
'home/.subversion/servers'.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Store password unencrypted (yes/no)? yes

I tried again the svn command and now I don't need to enter the password. 
My problem is solved.

I saw the password is saved in the file within .subversion/auth/svn.simple 
directory. Is that correct? How can I have it saved in encrypted format? Is 
this can be achieved by my personal or the system admin group?

Thank you very much for all the help.


Re: How to store new password so no need to enter every time?

Posted by Stefan Sperling <st...@elego.de>.
On Thu, May 03, 2012 at 12:08:06PM -0700, frame wrote:
> Yes, there is  the file "servers" and here is its content:
> $cat servers 
> [global]
> #store-passwords = no
> store-plaintext-passwords = no

Good. We've found the problem.

This store-plaintext-passwords option prevents the prompt from appearing.
Its default setting is 'ask', and that file overrides it to 'no'. So the
password is never stored.

Please refer to the documentation of this option in this section of the
svnbook: http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.7/svn.advanced.confarea.html#svn.advanced.confarea.opts.servers

You can override the system-wide /etc/subversion/servers config file by
configuring this option in the file ~/.subversion/servers as appropriate.

Re: How to store new password so no need to enter every time?

Posted by frame <xs...@yahoo.com>.
Please see my answers below.

On Thursday, May 3, 2012 2:43:25 PM UTC-4, Stefan Sperling wrote:

>
> Did you change anything in ~/.subversion/config or ~/.subversion/servers 
> from the defaults? 
>
One of my team-mates does not have this password issue(we are using the 
same svn repo). I have compared the two files between mine and his. For 
~/.subversion/config, I have not changed anything, except global-ingores 
property. For ~/.subversion/servers, I have not changed anything at all. 
  

>
> Are there any files in the /etc/subversion/ directory? If so, what do they 
> contain? 
>
Yes, there is  the file "servers" and here is its content:
$cat servers 
[global]
#store-passwords = no
store-plaintext-passwords = no

>
> What type of URL are you using to access the repository? 
> Are you using https:// or svn+ssh:// or something else? 
>
I am using http:// type URL, not svn+ssh:// type.
 

Re: How to store new password so no need to enter every time?

Posted by Stefan Sperling <st...@elego.de>.
On Thu, May 03, 2012 at 11:05:54AM -0700, frame wrote:
> Thank you for your reply.
> 
> I am using Subversion 1.6.5. And I am using Gnome Red Hat Linux 5.8.
> 
> Following your instructions, I have moved away this directory 
> ".subversion/auth/svn.simple". Then I tried the svn command, "svn ls 
> my_URL". Again, it asked for the password and I typed in and got the 
> listing result. Re-tried the same command, again it asked for the password. 
> 

Did you change anything in ~/.subversion/config or ~/.subversion/servers
from the defaults?

Are there any files in the /etc/subversion/ directory?
If so, what do they contain?

What type of URL are you using to access the repository?
Are you using https:// or svn+ssh:// or something else?

If you're using svn+ssh authentication is managed by ssh, not Subversion.
In that case you need to set up an ssh-agent to avoid password prompts.
See http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=ssh-agent&sektion=1

Re: How to store new password so no need to enter every time?

Posted by frame <xs...@yahoo.com>.
Thank you for your reply.

I am using Subversion 1.6.5. And I am using Gnome Red Hat Linux 5.8.

Following your instructions, I have moved away this directory 
".subversion/auth/svn.simple". Then I tried the svn command, "svn ls 
my_URL". Again, it asked for the password and I typed in and got the 
listing result. Re-tried the same command, again it asked for the password. 


Re: How to store new password so no need to enter every time?

Posted by Stefan Sperling <st...@elego.de>.
On Thu, May 03, 2012 at 10:34:08AM -0700, frame wrote:
> We use Subversion on Linux. Recently, don't know what I did(one thing for 
> sure, I have changed my password),  every time when I check in my commits, 
> it always ask for my password. After typing in my password, then I can 
> check in. It is very in-convenient for me. It was not this way in the past.
> 
> Some of my team-mates also have this "problem", and some don't.
> 
> I have googled and looked into .subversion/config file, played various 
> things. The "problem" still exists.
> 
> Thank you very much for your help.

Which version of svn are you using? Please do always mention the
version number when asking questions here. This allows us to exclude
some possible known problems in past releases of Subversion when
replying to your questions.

Move the directory ~/.subversion/auth/svn.simple/ aside and try again.
You should then get a prompt which asks whether or not the password may be
stored in plaintext. Unless you have gnome-keyring runnig, in which case
svn might try to store the password there. Maybe you are using gnome-keyring
without being aware of it, and there is some problem with its setup?
Same question applies to the Kwallet feature of KDE, which can also be
used to store Subversion passwords on Linux.

If you do not get the plaintext-password prompt or have no gnome-keyring
and/or kwallet support, you're probably using a 1.5 or older release which
is not supported anymore.

Re: How to store new password so no need to enter every time?

Posted by Jeyanthan <je...@collab.net>.
On Thursday 03 May 2012 11:04 PM, frame wrote:
> We use Subversion on Linux. Recently, don't know what I did(one thing
> for sure, I have changed my password), every time when I check in my
> commits, it always ask for my password. After typing in my password,
> then I can check in. It is very in-convenient for me. It was not this
> way in the past.
>
> Some of my team-mates also have this "problem", and some don't.
>
> I have googled and looked into .subversion/config file, played various
> things. The "problem" still exists.
>
> Thank you very much for your help.

Hi Frame,

Not sure if your client preference is restricting you from storing 
passwords.

Try renaming ~/.subversion directory (or move it to some other location) 
and do a checkout. This should prompt for password. Save it permanently 
and you are all set. Hope it helps.

-- 
Regards,
Jeyanthan