August 4, 2017 by Paul G. | Blog

Update: WordPress Email Two-Factor Authentication – No Auto-Login Links

Shield Image

This is a quick explanatory update on our Shield Security plugin for WordPress.

We’ve been providing email-based two-factor authentication (2FA) for a looong time. And recently we’ve received some feedback about the placing of a direct-login link within the email that is sent out.

How Shield’s Two-Factor Authentication Portal Works

With the portal you’re prompted to enter any or all of your 2FA codes to confirm your login. If you have turned on email-based 2FA, then you’ll get an email with both the code you need, and also a link.

This link will do 1 of 2 things:

  • if you have 2 or more factors that are required, then it’ll pre-populate the portal with your code #neat
  • if email is your only 2nd factor, it’ll log you straight into the site automagically #super-neat

The problem arises with the 2nd option. If a 2-factor email is sent out and intercepted, then the unwelcome visitor wins with a direct link right into your WordPress admin.

The chances of this are slim for 2 reasons:

  • the two-factor portal has a 5 minute window. If you miss it, you have to start your login from scratch.
  • the link can only ever be used once.

But the chance, however slim, remains. So what is the next step?

The link is really convenient, but we feel that there is little/no inconvenience in copy-pasting the code into your login portal.

So from Shield v5.12.2 we’ve removed the link from the outgoing two-factor email. You will now have to copy-paste the code into the portal directly.

We apologise if this is a problem for you, but we hope you’ll understand the reason behind it.

Thanks!

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To the Shield Team: Great Work on this highly configurable (but easy to do so) total security solution. After dumping all of my other security plugins (one failure after another), I was up and active with Shield in no more than ten minutes. The reason? The options and detailed configurations…

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