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#26259 Blocked admin

Posted in ‘Admin Tools for Joomla! 4 & 5’
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Environment Information

Joomla! version
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PHP version
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Admin Tools version
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Latest post by on Sunday, 04 December 2016 17:17 CST

Wednesday, 05 October 2016 05:52 CDT

wicko
 Logging into the admin of my site is becoming a total nightmare as I am blocked nearly every time. To get in I have to change the name of the file main.php to something else so I can get to the login screen. When I check the Admin tool exception I see there are no black listed IPs. I have white listed my IP but the problem is that that my IP is dynamic and not fixed so when I come back another day the IP is different and not on the white list. I have tried to add a range but often the new IP is well out of that range too.
It is ok for me to FTP in and change the file name every now and then but when it comes to the customer logging in to edit their site this will become a major problem.
Don't mind it blocking IPs is there are several failed login attempts. But it the IP is not on the black list then it should not be blocked.
How can I set this up so this stops happening and I can login as normal?

regards

David

Web design and development in Reading and Oxfordshire UK.

Wicko Web design

Wednesday, 05 October 2016 07:37 CDT

nicholas
The problem comes from the fact that you are using the administrator IP whitelist which means that only IPs in the whitelist are allowed to access the backend. When you try to access the backend through another IP address you raise a security exception and your IP address is automatically banned. The solution should be really simple: go to Components, Admin Tools, Web Application Firewall, Configure WAF and set "Allow administrator access only to IPs in Whitelist" to No. This will allow you to access the administrator back-end from any IP address.

Please remember that IP whitelisting only makes sense if you have a static IP address.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Friday, 07 October 2016 01:12 CDT

wicko
Thanks for the advice. I have set the UPs in While list to no but when I return another day I am blocked and have to use FTP to rename the main.php again.
Are there any other settings that need to be changed?

regards

David

Web design and development in Reading and Oxfordshire UK.

Wicko Web design

Friday, 07 October 2016 01:15 CDT

wicko
My site is currently offline. Not sure if that has anything to do with it. I am able to login at the front end to see full site but just unable to login to admin unless I rename the main.php

regards

David

Web design and development in Reading and Oxfordshire UK.

Wicko Web design

Friday, 07 October 2016 03:14 CDT

nicholas
As I said above, IP whitelisting only makes sense if you have a static IP address. You do not have a static IP address. Therefore you must disable IP whitelisting. It's NOT enough to remove the IPs from the IP whitelist management, you have to disable the entire IP whitelisting feature.

Per my instructions above please go to Components, Admin Tools, Web Application Firewall, Configure WAF and set "Allow administrator access only to IPs in Whitelist" to No.

If you have already done that, please take a look at https://www.akeebabackup.com/documentation/troubleshooter/atwafissues.html for unblocking your IP address. Please follow all of the steps described on that page or click the big, red Unblock My IP button in Components, Admin Tools to have everything done for you except for renaming the main.php file.

If you get locked out again it's worth taking a look at the Components, Admin Tools, Web Application Firewall, Security Exceptions Log. Filter by your IP address. What is the Reason and Target URL of the records relating to your IP address? This will tell us why you are getting blocked.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Friday, 07 October 2016 07:13 CDT

wicko
Hi Nickolas

I think you misread my replies.

Already set White lists to No and checked all the lists which are clear.

what else can I do?

regards

David

Web design and development in Reading and Oxfordshire UK.

Wicko Web design

Friday, 07 October 2016 08:48 CDT

nicholas
You need to do the last bit of my reply: If you get locked out again it's worth taking a look at the Components, Admin Tools, Web Application Firewall, Security Exceptions Log. Filter by your IP address. What is the Reason and Target URL of the records relating to your IP address? This will tell us why you are getting blocked.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Friday, 04 November 2016 04:24 CDT

wicko
Still doing it. Locks me out every time. It is odd as I have Admin Tools on other sites and never have issues. Only on this site. The site is set to be offline. Not sure if that would have any effect. Otherwise quite standard.

regards

David

Web design and development in Reading and Oxfordshire UK.

Wicko Web design

Friday, 04 November 2016 07:46 CDT

nicholas
I will need the information I requested in my previous reply.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Sunday, 04 December 2016 17:17 CST

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