User authentication failed: Unknown

HI @raystan — is authentication actually failing (i.e. you can’t log in) or is it just generating this (incorrect) error message?

I can login no problem. Sucuri is just generating the User authentication failed: Unknown message.

They replied with the following:

When the plugin reports a failed or successful login, it does so because WordPress triggered the “wp_login” or “wp_login_failed” action respectively. There must be something else going on in your environment that is causing the trigger to run, notice that it also says “Unknown” where the plugin should report your username, meaning that WordPress is actually missing the metadata for the account when passing the login attempt to the plugin.

The plugin does not trigger the wp_login_failed action directly, however it uses the standard WordPress signalling to generate a failure notice when someone attempts a login without checking the reCaptcha or if the reCaptcha is invalid.

Is it possible that, since using the plugin, these failure notices are coming from automated login attempts that are being blocked by the reCaptcha? Or is there always a one-to-one correlation with your own (successful) logins?

Hi @raystan — any further thoughts on this?

There is a one to one correlation.

When I access the login page, the Unknown error is generated. If I keep refreshing the login page without entering anything I get the error each time. When I enter my login and password and click the reCaptcha I get a login successful message.