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waclawek.jan
Super User
November 29, 2023
Question

"Authentication Failed" while being logged in

  • November 29, 2023
  • 8 replies
  • 4508 views

waclawekjan_0-1701249039335.png

JW

    8 replies

    Laurids_PETERSEN
    Community Manager
    November 29, 2023

    Hi @waclawek.jan,

    Is this issue something you frequently encounter?

    Do you have to login again when this message appears?

    Best regards,
    Laurids

    Tesla DeLorean
    Guru
    November 29, 2023

    I see this too occasionally.

    The login and redirect also seems to fail 60% of the time (Chrome in Desktop Windows), perhaps 90% on the phone (Chrome on Android), so whatever mechanisms you have there seem particularly bad. Seems to have worsened in recent weeks, so not sure what changed.

    Often it then appears that I am partially logged in or authenticated as the secondary attempts then flow through faster.

    It's just a constant annoyance, it should work better, but I just tolerate it and try again.. I only have a hammer

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    Laurids_PETERSEN
    Community Manager
    November 30, 2023

    Hi Tesla,
    Thanks for providing this feedback.

    Regarding the login issue on Chrome for Android, I believe I can replicate this error. I have described the flow from my perspective below: 

    1. User clicks on the profile picture top right on community.st.com
    2. User enters myST credentials and logs in
    3. User gets a blank page and community.st.com does not load (blank page)
    4. Going back to the previous page and then forwards again loads the community.

    Does this flow align with what you are experiencing? 

    Thanks in advance.

    Best regards,
    Laurids

     

    Tesla DeLorean
    Guru
    November 30, 2023

    >>In step 3 usually get a "SSO redirect failed" page. Going back reloads the same page; going back twice loads the original community.st.com page from where I started, the icon indicating that I'm not logged in.

    My experience is similar to Jan's. It fails and doesn't like going backward/forward. Go back to start, repeat.

    >>Also, the timeout ought to be months or never, ..

    I think the reason not to do this is that it's billed as a service, based on concurrent active users logged in. If this is the reason surely there are better algorithms to load-shed lurkers over more active participants.

    Then again the off-site authentication probably billed per usage too.

    Third party involvement probably to defer liability, but all these services seem to get hacked or compromised frequently, so mostly security theater at the cost of my data, time and patience.

     

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    waclawek.jan
    Super User
    November 29, 2023

    Hi Laurids,

    > Is this issue something you frequently encounter?

    From time to time. Sometimes I'm clearly logged off through the idiotic few-hours timeout, as opening forum in different window indicates, but that was not this case, I tested that.

    > Do you have to login again when this message appears?

    In this case (i.e. I'm not logged out), it's enough to reload page.

    ---

    > The login and redirect also seems to fail [..], perhaps 90% on the phone (Chrome on Android)

    I confirm this, too; just am too tired of repeating complaints. That mechanism is inherently failed. At the first place, it's a dumb idea to redirect in the browser, authentication ought to be solved at your side entirely.

    Also, the timeout ought to be months or never, but we've said it so many, many times throughout these years.

    JW

     

    @Laurids_PETERSEN 

    waclawek.jan
    Super User
    November 30, 2023

    I in step 3 usually get a "SSO redirect failed" page. Going back reloads the same page; going back twice loads the original community.st.com page from where I started, the icon indicating that I'm not logged in.

    At that point, reloading still indicates I am not logged in, but clicking on the icon results in the page reloading with being logged in without having to enter login/password.

    But this procedure is so annoying that I gave up weeks ago and simply don' t log in on mobile, so the details might've changed since then, who knows.

    Point is, by getting rid of the entirely unneeded hourly login completely you also gain the benefit of not having complaints on the broken login system.

    JW

    waclawek.jan
    Super User
    November 30, 2023

    Just tried, fallen into https://sso.st.com/idp/HQ2mE/resumeSAML20/idp/SSO.ping saying "Page expired". Then the rest of the routine (back twice, then reload does not help, then click on login automatically logs in through reloads including sso.xxx in urlbar briefly), exactly as I've described above.

    JW

    Visitor II
    December 7, 2023

    A few days back I also faced a login problem and all the login credentials were correct, is this normal or some kind of bug?

    waclawek.jan
    Super User
    December 13, 2023

    Following is a different way to achieve the same result, but maybe the underlying problem is the same (i.e. messy coding stemming from "modern" ajaxy approach).

    I had a thread list open in one tab, and two different threads in two different tabs. In one of the latter tabs, I clicked Reply which took me to authentication, in the thread list I clicked on the user icon to took me to the same authentication. I (auto)filled in both the login/password and clicked to proceed in both, i.e. one was already somewhere in the redirection process while I clicked in the other. Both tabs displayed me that I'm logged in, i.e. user icon, red number of notifications next to the bell. In the tab with the thread, clicking on Reply caused the red "Authentification failed" as in the opening post of this thread.

    JW

    Laurids_PETERSEN
    Community Manager
    February 6, 2024

    Hi @waclawek.jan and @Tesla DeLorean

    Are you continuously facing these issues? We are still investigating, but I would like an update from your side if possible. 

    Best regards,
    Laurids 

    Tesla DeLorean
    Guru
    February 6, 2024

    In recent months things have been more reliable, so would imagine you or your identify verification provider has resolved or tinkered with things or settings.

    I do occasionally get situations where things time out, or the redirect/forwarding just fails. ie you get to a blank screen, says it's confused or you refresh and it claims to have no idea what the request was. You end up going back and forth to the originating page/post and it either succeeds as now it thinks I'm logged on, or it repeats the log on process. Like I said it's mainly in the redirect via the login, and even if that completes quickly. Some times I think the quickness is the problem, fields auto-fill and I bang the login button.

    Occasionally when trying to reply I get complaints about credentials, the Red Box error warnings, and that generally means the system has logged be out.

    Other times if I cut-n-paste stuff out of other posts I get an HTML warnings. Sometimes hitting Post again works as it re-rendered or processed the post internally. Or I just need to re-paste using "without formatting". Mostly with things where it looks like it's Quoting, or Code Blocking something I've pulled from within the rendered frame for the post/page.

     

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    waclawek.jan
    Super User
    February 11, 2024

    Yesterday in the evening I could not log in:

    waclawekjan_0-1707675806258.png

     

    This was persistent until around midnight.

    JW