NotebookApp Error unpacking user from cookie

[ggrrll]

Describe the bug/ To Reproduce

🚫 When I launch notebook from terminal, it keeps giving forbidden error, when trying to save
(in the title, the error message in console, with many 403 warnings)

✅ it works fine though if I launch classical notebook from jupyter lab

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: macOS 13.0
• Browser: brave, safari

some relevant packages from my pip freeze

ipykernel==6.20.2
ipython==8.8.0
ipython-genutils==0.2.0

jupyter==1.0.0
jupyter-console==6.4.4
jupyter-contrib-core==0.3.3
jupyter-contrib-nbextensions==0.5.1
jupyter-events==0.6.3
jupyter-highlight-selected-word==0.2.0
jupyter-latex-envs==1.4.6
jupyter-nbextensions-configurator==0.4.1
jupyter-server-mathjax==0.2.6
jupyter_client==7.4.9
jupyter_core==5.1.3
jupyter_server==2.1.0
jupyter_server_terminals==0.4.4
jupyterlab-pygments==0.2.2
jupyterlab-widgets==1.1.1
jupyterlab_server==2.19.0
jupyterlab==3.5.2

[RRosio]

Hi @ggrrll thank you for submitting this issue. Are you running from a directory where you have the needed permissions? Does this issue come up if you run from a different directory?

[ggrrll]

yes, I didn't have problems actually last week (also, I do not have issues with jupyter lab) ... the only thing it changed in the meantime, as far as I can see, it's the installation of jupyter lab indeed

[burnpanck]

I also started to observe this behaviour, though I do not know what changed in my environment. I am on macOS 13.1, with latest Chrome. I start the jupyter notebook server via the terminal from my home directory as always, which then automatically launches the browser on the jupyter notebook file browser page. I can then successfully open a notebook, but just a few seconds later, it stopps working ("forbidden").
If I refresh the file browser page, it asks me for the token. I can enter the token, which will successfully forward me then to the file browser page. However, after a short time, the same behaviour repeats. Here is a log sequence:

[I 10:51:18.092 NotebookApp] 302 GET /tree(::1) 0.880000ms
[I 10:51:25.358 NotebookApp] 302 POST /login?next=%2Ftree(::1) 0.450000ms
[I 10:51:33.971 NotebookApp] Starting buffering for 5573df50-2df6-4ee0-b765-3e33b1dba59e:5647864a30654db5996e976155e05961
[W 10:51:34.234 NotebookApp] 404 GET /nbextensions/itkwidgets/extension.js?v=20230123103457 (::1) 1.080000ms referer=http://localhost:8888/notebooks/test.ipynb
[W 10:51:34.234 NotebookApp] 404 GET /nbextensions/k3d.js?v=20230123103457 (::1) 1.000000ms referer=http://localhost:8888/notebooks/test.ipynb
[W 10:51:34.235 NotebookApp] 404 GET /nbextensions/k3d/extension.js?v=20230123103457 (::1) 0.420000ms referer=http://localhost:8888/notebooks/test.ipynb
[W 10:51:35.309 NotebookApp] 404 GET /nbextensions/widgets/notebook/js/extension.js?v=20230123103457 (::1) 0.670000ms referer=http://localhost:8888/notebooks/test.ipynb
[E 10:51:35.318 NotebookApp] Error unpacking user from cookie: Extra data: line 1 column 4 (char 3)
[W 10:51:35.318 NotebookApp] Clearing invalid/expired login cookie username-localhost-8888
[W 10:51:35.318 NotebookApp] 403 POST /nbdime/api/isgit (::1) 0.520000ms referer=http://localhost:8888/notebooks/test.ipynb
[W 10:51:35.404 NotebookApp] Forbidden

The Cookie sent with one of the requests in this sequence looks as follows:

_xsrf=2|f9f65056|e080112f10d8f97a6e89c2d3346e811d|1674467478; username-localhost-8888="2|1:0|10:1674467485|23:username-localhost-8888|44:MzM0YmMyZGI5MzE3NGQ2NDhjZjBiNzI0MjExMGE1Yjg=|009cfe582cb0223f2dd093202edef9ad82cce34ba58f994d71033a5d1619c387"

[ggrrll]

might be related to #2396

[ggrrll]

btw, this issue seems to be affecting also other tool, like nbdiff-web (https://nbdime.readthedocs.io)
hereby the console error

[E web:1798] Uncaught exception GET /difftool (127.0.0.1)
HTTPServerRequest(protocol='http', host='127.0.0.1:52958', method='GET', uri='/difftool', version='HTTP/1.1', remote_ip='127.0.0.1')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/tornado/web.py", line 1692, in _execute
    result = await result
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/jupyter_server/base/handlers.py", line 608, in prepare
    _user = await _user
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/jupyter_server/auth/identity.py", line 241, in _get_user
    _cookie_user = self.get_user_cookie(handler)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/jupyter_server/auth/identity.py", line 399, in get_user_cookie
    _user_cookie = handler.get_secure_cookie(
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/tornado/web.py", line 773, in get_secure_cookie
    self.require_setting("cookie_secret", "secure cookies")
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/tornado/web.py", line 1592, in require_setting
    raise Exception(
Exception: You must define the 'cookie_secret' setting in your application to use secure cookies
[E web:1221] Uncaught exception in write_error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/tornado/web.py", line 1692, in _execute
    result = await result
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/jupyter_server/base/handlers.py", line 608, in prepare
    _user = await _user
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/jupyter_server/auth/identity.py", line 241, in _get_user
    _cookie_user = self.get_user_cookie(handler)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/jupyter_server/auth/identity.py", line 399, in get_user_cookie
    _user_cookie = handler.get_secure_cookie(
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/tornado/web.py", line 773, in get_secure_cookie
    self.require_setting("cookie_secret", "secure cookies")
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/tornado/web.py", line 1592, in require_setting
    raise Exception(
Exception: You must define the 'cookie_secret' setting in your application to use secure cookies

[burnpanck]

Not sure this is related to #2396. That thread is overflowing with people not having the right user permissions for the folder they are trying to access. Mine are correct. Also, just disabling token verification is definitely not a solution. On the other hand, #5492 does seem related. Following their thread, I downgraded my jupyter_server package from 2.0.1 to 1.23.5 (i.e. the latest satisfying jupyter_server<2). Now, everything appears to work as expected again. I conclude then that the recent version change did break something.

[ggrrll]

yeah...indeed probably related to jupyter-server/jupyter_server#1038

and yes, downgrading works for me too

[drscotthawley]

Are there any suggested workarounds for this at the moment, e.g. downgrade juptyer, or...?

I would love to be able to edit one of my notebooks right now, but this error is preventing it:

[E 15:52:41.105 NotebookApp] Error unpacking user from cookie: Extra data: line 1 column 4 (char 3)
[W 15:52:41.105 NotebookApp] Clearing invalid/expired login cookie username-localhost-8888

And then I get a window showing "Connection Failed":

I do have write permission in the directory - it's my laptop.

Version info:

$ pip list | grep jupyter
jupyter                           1.0.0
jupyter-book                      0.13.1
jupyter-cache                     0.4.3
jupyter_client                    7.4.9
jupyter-console                   6.4.4
jupyter-contrib-core              0.4.2
jupyter_core                      5.1.3
jupyter-events                    0.6.3
jupyter-nbextensions-configurator 0.6.1
jupyter_server                    2.1.0
jupyter-server-mathjax            0.2.6
jupyter_server_terminals          0.4.4
jupyter-sphinx                    0.3.2
jupyterlab-pygments               0.2.2
jupyterlab-widgets                1.1.1
sphinx-jupyterbook-latex          0.4.7

$ python --version
Python 3.10.9

$ pip list | grep ^nb
nbclassic                         0.4.8
nbclient                          0.5.13
nbconvert                         6.5.4
nbdev                             2.3.9
nbdime                            3.1.1
nbformat                          5.7.3

MacOS 12.3

This happens for all notebooks I try to open (which I used to be able to open), not just a particular notebook.

I am running the exact jupyter that corresponds with my current Python environment.

[drscotthawley]

Update: Found a workaround via this StackExchange answer:

Running

pip install --upgrade 'jupyter-server<2.0.0'

fixed the problem, without changing anything else. :-)