Cerber is not allowing access to wp-admin since updating

Hi! Can you say for sure that this doesn’t happen with Cerber 8.0?

Hi Gioni,
I believe the issue actually may have started at version 8 (sorry, I know this is less helpful)… it was definitely within the last few few versions though as it was a non-issue until recently…

I am running 3 wp sites all with Cerber, each one has a variety of different plugins, but the issue is present on each site since upgrading to either 8 or 8.1 to my knowledge.

Is it possibly a hardening setting that is on be default now?

• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by hotboxprintstudio.

Any idea what may be the cause of this? I cannot seem to figure it out. Still consistently getting locked out. Only way back in is to disable the plugin temporarily via FTP.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by hotboxprintstudio.

I just noticed I also get a 404 redirect when I log myself out… Tried deactivating all plugins and reactivating one by one to no avail… problem still exists. Totally baffled what the cause is. Both sites with Cerber are running on PHP 7.0.33.

Another odd thing – when I attempt to go to my url/wp-login.php, I get the 404 screen that Cerber uses by default (which I do not have selected in my settings, instead I use my own themes 404), and when I attempt to go to my url/wp-admin.php I get a broken version of “my sites 404″… very strange. I should iterate too, that if i were to say, type in myurl/pagethatdoesntexist, ill be taken to my 404 page which loads 100% correct.

One things for certain though, Cerber seems to be treating me like I am not whitelisted.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by hotboxprintstudio.

What is “url/wp-admin.php”? There is no such URL in WordPress.

Hi Gioni,
Sorry, i was not being specific… I just meant my url, as in “hotboxprintstudio.com/wp-admin”, or “hotboxprintstudio.com/wp-login”, for example…

This is what I get when I log myself out of the dashboard.
https://hotboxprintstudio.com/wp-login.php?action=logout&_wpnonce=0c8b23c315

Same issue when attempting to login at https://hotboxprintstudio.com/wp-login.php

Please open the Plugins admin page and check it for “Must-Use | Drop-ins” plugins. It’s possible that your hosting provider “take care of your website” and install something that is conflicting with one of your plugins.

Also, try to activate one of those themes that are bundled with WordPress and reproduce the issue.

Thanks for your response Gioni,

When I visit my “Must-use” plugins, this is what is listed:

aaa-wp-cerber.php
Swift Performance Lite early loader

On my second site, only the following “Must-Use” plugins are visible:

Swift Performance Lite early loader

*Same problem occurs when switching to a default wordpress theme such as Twenty Nineteen.

I should note a another strange behavior while trying to debug this issue –
If i log myself out of my site, I am redirected to a 404, but then afterward, if I enter https://hotboxprintstudio.com/admin only, it amazingly lets me right back in as if I never logged out. Very confusing. But if I were to go to https://hotboxprintstudio.com/wp-login.php it will automatically redirect me to a 404.

Additionally, I noticed Swift Cache is making changes to my .htaccess, could that have something to do with it possibly??

I hope this information helps.
Thank you for your time.
Best
Shaun

• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by hotboxprintstudio.

Hi Gioni,

Don’t quote me on this, but I believe I sorted it out finally…

I did some critical checks on my plugin settings one last time to see if there may be something that I potentially missed that could be contributing to the issue and I found that all of my installations were running in “Legacy Mode” by default, so I visited your blog and read up on the other option – “Standard Mode” here: https://wpcerber.com/development-version-6-3/.

Afterward, I switched each site running WP Cerber to “Standard Mode” and then cleared the cache, then proceeded to log myself out like before. This time around I was able to automatically be sent to the login screen via WordPresses default behavior. Logging in after being logged out worked perfectly with no 404 redirect so I believe that was actually the issue. Not really clear on why? But i do believe I solved the problem.

Best
Shaun

I can confirm now after 2 days of switching to “Standard Mode” this has resolved the issue. As always, thank you for your help Gioni.

Best
Shaun

• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by hotboxprintstudio.

Good news!

A good rule of thumb is that if you come across an issue after updating, check the release note or the changelog which is located on the Tools / Changelog admin page. We advise to enable “Standard Mode” at least on these three pages:

https://wpcerber.com/how-to-protect-wordpress-checklist/
https://wpcerber.com/getting-started/
https://wpcerber.com/wp-cerber-security-6-5/

Thank you, will do! Normally Im good about that, but I admit that for the last few Cerber updates I did not observe the changelog. Cerber is prob the only plugin I update no matter what and I got a little lazy on the last few updates to make sure I crosschecked the new changes.
Thanks again!
-Shaun