Issues with Admin CP login - 5.6.2

[dmark101]

Hi. I recently upgraded my forums from 3.8.11 to 5.6.2 and the last time I was in the admin cp, I saw the notification to update to 5.6.3 (and now 5.6.4), which I downloaded and wanted to install.

The problem? Well, I can log on to the message board just fine, but sometime after we installed vB 5 back in July, I went from being able to log in to the admin cp to not being able to log in. I get the error that my password is incorrect. Now, I did change my password for safety reasons shortly after the upgrade. Since then, as I mentioned earlier, I can log onto the message board and post. I just can't log onto the admin cp. I get the log in error. I've even tried the old password to the same effect.

I did try re-upping the tools.php file and install directory to make sure the cookie paths were at the default (and they are). A friend who helped me with the install asked if I had checked the PHP version on the site, mentioning that vB5 needed PHP 7.2.0 or higher to run. I ran a test script and it came back as PHP 7.4.12, which should be fine.

I've also logged onto my site's cpanel to confirm that the PHP running on the site is 7.4.

I considered this might be a browser issue, but I get the same results using FF/Chrome/Edge. Any help or insight provided would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Mark.B]

There are two config.php files in vBulletin 5.
One is in the forum root.
The other is in /core/includes

They both have a setting:

$config['cookie_prefix'] = 'bb';

The value set here (bb in this case) MUST be the same in BOTH files.

[dmark101]

I have checked both config.php files and the values are the same.

[Wayne Luke]

Make sure that you have Argon 2ID available in PHP. You can see what Password Hashing algorithms are available by creating a new file with the following contents:

<pre>
<?php
print_r(password_algos());
?>
</pre>

Once created, upload it to your site and load the page in your browser. The output should look like this:

Array
(
    [0] => 2y
    [1] => argon2i
    [2] => argon2id
)

If the last two entries aren't available, then talk to your hosting provider about adding Argon password hashing to PHP 7.4.

[dmark101]

Thank you for the suggestion. I already had a test PHP file on my site to check to make sure I had the proper PHP for my vB installation, so I edited the file to include the code you posted. This is the output I got:

Array
(
    [0] => 2y
    [1] => argon2i
    [2] => argon2id
)

I'm still bewildered by this. I had no problems after the installation. This happened rather suddenly, around the time of the last update was announced.

[Wayne Luke]

Can you access the Site Builder tools?

Click Edit Site to turn on Site Builder.
Then click Edit Page.
It will ask for your AdminCP password.
Does this work?
If it does, you should be able to click on "AdminCP" in the Site Builder menu and access it.
If you get into the AdminCP, what version of PHP are you using in this directory? It will be listed on the home page of the AdminCP.

[dmark101]

Just tried that. The Edit Site functions all work without me having to enter in a user/pass, all except AdminCP.

[Wayne Luke]

They should not. All Site Builder tools should require a valid Administrator password the first time one is activated. This will create an AdminCP Session that lasts for one hour (with default settings).

I recommend upgrading a copy of the database to 5.6.4. After upgrading that test installation, does it have the same problems?

[dmark101]

Hmm. That's odd because that's how it's always worked since updating to 5.6.x. We did update the database a couple of times due to the versioning. I'll see about installing the update and seeing if that helps.