Yet another 2FA error post… but slightly different

  • Resolved Bob33

    (@bob33)


    5 years, 6 months ago

    Hi there Wordfence

    First off, love your plugin. Thanks for all your work for the WP community ??

    I have the same error as many other users have had over the last while:

    Error Activating 2FA
    The code provided does not match the expected value. Please verify that the time on your authenticator device is correct and that this server’s time is correct.

    However, unlike many of those there is no apparent discrepancy with the times being displayed on the Two factor authentication page (/wp-admin/admin.php?page=WFLS#top#manage) where both server and browser time match:

    Server Time: 2019-08-18 23:54:57 UTC (2019-08-19 11:54:57 Pacific/Auckland)
    Browser Time: Sun, 18 Aug 2019 23:54:58 GMT (Mon Aug 19 2019 11:54:58 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time))

    …and all looks well in the diagnotic tool time section (/wp-admin/admin.php?page=WordfenceTools&subpage=diagnostics) where Wordfence agrees with the server time (yes these were copied 8 seconds before the above):

    Wordfence Network Time 2019-08-18 23:54:50 UTC
    Server Time 2019-08-18 23:54:50 UTC
    Wordfence Network Time Offset + less than 1 second

    So I’m not sure where to go next.

    Other Diagnostic tool data:
    NTP Time Offset is Blocked (hosting is with Siteground).
    TOTP Time Source is Server Time
    WordPress Time Zone is Pacific/Auckland

    …Problems there?

    Authentication device and App (Google Authenticator) is obviously working on local time but App says time sync is good.

    What else should I be looking at?

    Thanks

    • This topic was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by Bob33.
Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • Hey @bob33,

    If your device and server times are properly synced can you please check for a conflict? Try temporarily switching to a default theme if you’re not already using one and disabling all other plugins to see if it helps. If it helps, then reactivate them one by one to to find the offending plugin(s)?

    Please let me know how it goes.

    Thanks,

    Gerroald

    Thread Starter Bob33

    (@bob33)

    Hi Gerroald

    Tried 2FA set up again on the same site and this time it just worked.

    There was a difference in the time data at the bottom of /wp-admin/admin.php?page=WFLS#top#manage however – and extra line “Corrected Time (WF):”

    Server Time: 2019-08-20 21:36:46 UTC (2019-08-21 09:36:46 Pacific/Auckland)
    Browser Time: Tue, 20 Aug 2019 21:36:47 GMT (Wed Aug 21 2019 09:36:47 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time))
    Corrected Time (WF): 2019-08-20 21:36:45 UTC (2019-08-21 09:36:45 Pacific/Auckland)

    That may be a thing. Having said that, I was in the process of testing 2FA set up on the staging site which lives right next door to the live site and that worked no problems as well, but that site is not showing the Corrected Time.

    It’s all quite mysterious.

    In terms of it being an intermittent issue, the other day I was locked out of a site on which I had previous set up WF 2FA with no issues. It was not accepting 2FA codes or recovery codes from the login screen and offering no error messages.

    Had to disable WF via FTP, log in, reactivate WF via FTP and deactivate 2FA.

    Great security feature so hopefully it all smooths out. Will see how we go with this site.

    Thanks

    Bob

    Hey @bob33,

    This really is odd. I’m not sure of a reason why this should be intermittent. But if it continues, please let me know.

    Thanks,

    Gerroald

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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