TypeError: __SSHCipher() takes no arguments error in relation to cryptography package

[cwb-slu]

Good day to everyone here, I am encountering an error when attempting to deploy a Django application in Windows Server 2016 with Apache and mod_wsgi. I am not sure whether the root cause of this is with my Apache configuration or settings, but it seems that the import comes from the cryptography package installed with oracledb.

1. What versions are you using?

For my virtual environment packages:
Django 3.2
oracledb: 2.3.0
mod_wsgi 5.0.0
cryptography 43.0.0
cx-Oracle 8.3.0

My oracle db:

Python output:

>>> import sys
>>> import platform
>>> print("platform.platform:", platform.platform())
platform.platform: Windows-10-10.0.14393-SP0
>>> print("sys.maxsize > 2**32:", sys.maxsize > 2**32)
sys.maxsize > 2**32: True
>>> print("platform.python_version:", platform.python_version())
platform.python_version: 3.10.0
>>> import oracledb
>>> print("oracledb.__version__:", oracledb.__version__)
oracledb.__version__: 2.3.0
>>>

2. Is it an error or a hang or a crash?
Error connected with wsgi

3. What error(s) or behavior you are seeing?

[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]  mod_wsgi (pid=5432): Failed to exec Python script file 'C:/Users/opc/Desktop/analyticsdashboard/dashboardslu/dashboardslu/wsgi.py'.
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]  mod_wsgi (pid=5432): Exception occurred processing WSGI script 'C:/Users/opc/Desktop/analyticsdashboard/dashboardslu/dashboardslu/wsgi.py'.
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]  Traceback (most recent call last):\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]    File "C:/Users/opc/Desktop/analyticsdashboard/dashboardslu/dashboardslu/wsgi.py", line 24, in <module>\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]      application = get_wsgi_application()\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]    File "C:\\Users\\opc\\Desktop\\analyticsdashboard\\local-environment-slu\\Lib\\site-packages\\django\\core\\wsgi.py", line 12, in get_wsgi_application\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]      django.setup(set_prefix=False)\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]    File "C:\\Users\\opc\\Desktop\\analyticsdashboard\\local-environment-slu\\Lib\\site-packages\\django\\__init__.py", line 19, in setup\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]      configure_logging(settings.LOGGING_CONFIG, settings.LOGGING)\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]    File "C:\\Users\\opc\\Desktop\\analyticsdashboard\\local-environment-slu\\Lib\\site-packages\\django\\conf\\__init__.py", line 82, in __getattr__\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]      self._setup(name)\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]    File "C:\\Users\\opc\\Desktop\\analyticsdashboard\\local-environment-slu\\Lib\\site-packages\\django\\conf\\__init__.py", line 69, in _setup\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]      self._wrapped = Settings(settings_module)\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]    File "C:\\Users\\opc\\Desktop\\analyticsdashboard\\local-environment-slu\\Lib\\site-packages\\django\\conf\\__init__.py", line 170, in __init__\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]      mod = importlib.import_module(self.SETTINGS_MODULE)\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]    File "C:\\Users\\opc\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python310\\lib\\importlib\\__init__.py", line 126, in import_module\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]      return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]    File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1050, in _gcd_import\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]    File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1027, in _find_and_load\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]    File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1006, in _find_and_load_unlocked\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]    File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 688, in _load_unlocked\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]    File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 883, in exec_module\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]    File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 241, in _call_with_frames_removed\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]    File "C:\\Users/opc/Desktop/analyticsdashboard/dashboardslu\\dashboardslu\\settings.py", line 101, in <module>\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]      import oracledb\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]    File "C:\\Users\\opc\\Desktop\\analyticsdashboard\\local-environment-slu\\Lib\\site-packages\\oracledb\\__init__.py", line 43, in <module>\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]      from . import base_impl, thick_impl, thin_impl\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]    File "src\\\\oracledb\\\\impl/thin/crypto.pyx", line 33, in init oracledb.thin_impl\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]    File "C:\\Users\\opc\\Desktop\\analyticsdashboard\\local-environment-slu\\Lib\\site-packages\\cryptography\\x509\\__init__.py", line 8, in <module>\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]      from cryptography.x509.base import (\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]    File "C:\\Users\\opc\\Desktop\\analyticsdashboard\\local-environment-slu\\Lib\\site-packages\\cryptography\\x509\\base.py", line 15, in <module>\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]      from cryptography.hazmat.primitives import hashes, serialization\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]    File "C:\\Users\\opc\\Desktop\\analyticsdashboard\\local-environment-slu\\Lib\\site-packages\\cryptography\\hazmat\\primitives\\serialization\\__init__.py", line 25, in <module>\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]      from cryptography.hazmat.primitives.serialization.ssh import (\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]    File "C:\\Users\\opc\\Desktop\\analyticsdashboard\\local-environment-slu\\Lib\\site-packages\\cryptography\\hazmat\\primitives\\serialization\\ssh.py", line 105, in <module>\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]      b"aes256-ctr": _SSHCipher(\r
[wsgi:error] [pid 5432:tid 1284]  TypeError: _SSHCipher() takes no arguments\r

4. Does your application call init_oracle_client()?

• Yes, based on the logs it shows that the thin version is being used.

Also, I've tried to find a solution for this online, but this is the closest I found :
pyca/cryptography#9988

Any help would be appreciated, thank you!

[anthony-tuininga]

I don't know what might be causing this, but from what little I could discover, it seems to be some sort of incompatibility with one module or another. I assume that you cannot replicate this with a simple script (not using wsgi)?

[cwb-slu]

I don't know what might be causing this, but from what little I could discover, it seems to be some sort of incompatibility with one module or another. I assume that you cannot replicate this with a simple script (not using wsgi)?

Hi Anthony, after tweaking the configuration for my Apache Server and the wsgi.py file in my application, it seems that the problem occurs when the packages from the virtual environment are not properly imported in mod_wsgi or wsgi. I tried to replicate the error with somewhat a similar setup at the time I posted this issue, and this was the error returned from the logs:

After importing the site packages in the wsgi.py file, it seems that the problem is not related to oracledb but instead is related with how mod_wsgi and venv imports its packages.

In case someone also encounters this problem, here is the wsgi.py file:

import os
import sys
from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application
#Importing site packages
sys.path.append("C:/Users/user/Desktop/myproject/local-environment-venv/Lib/site-packages")
sys.path.append("C:/Users/user/Desktop/myproject/myproject")
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS-MODULE'] = 'myproject.settings'
os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', 'myproject.settings')
application = get_wsgi_application()

Right now I am able to run my Django application in Apache through a Virtual Host and with a virtual environment. I suppose you can close this issue now. Thanks!

[anthony-tuininga]

Thanks for the explanation! Hopefully that helps anyone else who runs into this issue.