Make WordPress Core

Opened 17 years ago

Closed 17 years ago

Last modified 17 years ago

#6675 closed defect (bug) (fixed)

wp-login.php refactoring makes it difficult to write an authentication plugin

Reported by: dwc's profile dwc Owned by: ryan's profile ryan
Milestone: 2.5.1 Priority: normal
Severity: normal Version: 2.5
Component: General Keywords:
Focuses: Cc:

Description

The refactoring of wp-login.php done for 2.5 for bug #5405 changed the behavior of the wp_authenticate plugin hook in a subtle but important way.

Previously (see, for example, http://trac.wordpress.org/browser/branches/2.3/wp-login.php#L287) the wp_authenticate hook ran by default when wp-login.php is accessed. It ran even in cases where the username or password field is blank.

In 2.5, the "silent" default case is to return a WP_Error object when the credentials are blank before wp_authenticate runs.

Plugins that wish to use the WordPress user store but rely on an external authentication mechanism (e.g. http-authentication) have little way of doing so now. They can plug into wp_validate_auth_cookie, but that's not as clean a solution.

If possible, could the previous behavior of the wp_authenticate hook be restored?

Alternatively, could another hook be added to restore this behavior? For example, a wp_signon hook could be added above the cookie check in wp-includes/user.php and authentication plugins could set the cookie themselves on successful authentication.

Attachments (1)

reloc_wp_auth.diff (813 bytes) - added by ryan 17 years ago.
Move wp_authenticate action up

Download all attachments as: .zip

Change History (7)

#1 @dwc
17 years ago

  • Version set to 2.5

#2 @ryan
17 years ago

  • Owner changed from anonymous to ryan

@ryan
17 years ago

Move wp_authenticate action up

#3 @ryan
17 years ago

I think wp_authenticate is misplaced. Moving it up before we check the credentials seems like it would fix the problem.

#4 @dwc
17 years ago

Yeah, moving wp_authenticate fixes the problem. Thanks!

#5 @ryan
17 years ago

  • Resolution set to fixed
  • Status changed from new to closed

(In [7691]) Relocate wp_authenticate action to fix back compat and make it more useful. fixes #6675 for 2.5

#6 @ryan
17 years ago

(In [7692]) Relocate wp_authenticate action to fix back compat and make it more useful. fixes #6675 for trunk

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