Symptoms
When accessing the author instance via http://<host>:<port>/, the browser showed a blank page and the access log showed that anonymous tried to access the page with a 401 status code instead of the normal 302 status code. This prevent any users from accessing the author instance.
Login to http://<host>:<port>/crx and http://<host>:<port>/system/console are unaffected and are working properly.
Cause
The property "sling:vanityPath" of a page to set to blank. This cause Sling to redirect to this page instead of the login page.
Resolution
Log into http://<host>:<port>/crx with the admin account. Click on the search button and for page using the following query:
select * from cq:PageContent where sling:vanityPath = ''
OR
//element(*,cq:PageContent)[@sling:vanityPath='']
For all the return pages, find the property "sling:vanityPath" and delete this property.
Note: the property will be gray out after it has been deleted.
To prevent future issue, modify the node /libs/foundation/components/page/dialog/items/advanced/items/vanityPath/fieldConfig by adding the attribute "allowBlank" [type: Boolean] with value equals to "false".
This will prevent authors from enter empty value to the property "sling:vanityPath".
Applies to
CQ 5.2.x