Questions tagged [authentication]

For questions about how authentication within the Stack Exchange network works. General questions about authentication are off-topic, but depending on the specific question may find a home at e.g. Stack Overflow or Security Stack Exchange.

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How does SO's new auto-login feature work?

SO and SU just told me I've been logged in. I'm guessing because I'm already logged into my Google account... but how does SO know that?
mpen's user avatar
  • 1,552
85 votes
1 answer
7k views

"OpenID 2.0 for Google Accounts is going away"; will this affect Stack Exchange? [closed]

Apparently, for some reason, Google is retiring its OpenID 2.0 platform. I got this notice while logging in with Disqus, but not with Stack Exchange. So... is Stack Exchange going to be affected by ...
badp's user avatar
  • 33.6k
39 votes
1 answer
2k views

Storing Stack Overflow login details in local storage considered harmful

This has been brought up many times before, Search: Can't Log Out I can't get my account not to auto-login at work Why can't I log out of Stack Overflow Undesired auto-login to meta? Improve SE ...
user's user avatar
  • 549
35 votes
1 answer
1k views

How does one Stack Exchange site know that I'm logged in to the other?

Here's what I did: Completely cleared my browser of all cookies Opened a new browser window in Incognito mode Navigated to askubuntu.com and log in Opened a new tab and navigate to stackoverflow.com ...
CodyBugstein's user avatar
34 votes
5 answers
5k views

Authenticate to Stack Exchange using GitHub

I've seen sign in methods using GitHub as an authentication provider, for example c9.io: (AWS Cloud9) Is it possible to authenticate into Stack Exchange using this method? At the moment there's ...
jussinen's user avatar
  • 443
31 votes
1 answer
2k views

Can one log in using multiple Google accounts with Stack Overflow?

I don't see an option anywhere though, perhaps some hack. If not, can this be a feature request?
geoaxis's user avatar
  • 413
31 votes
1 answer
1k views

Log out of all Stack Exchange sites with linked account simultaneously

On the logout page for each Stack Exchange site, there is currently a button for Log Out, which logs the current session out of the current site, and a button for Log Out Everywhere, which logs all ...
nhinkle's user avatar
  • 12.2k
26 votes
0 answers
898 views

Why do I keep getting logged out of Stack Overflow?

I keep on getting logged out of Stack Overflow on my personal computer. This can happen even when I've been logged in earlier in the same day. It used to be that I'd never get logged out of SO (which ...
Noah's user avatar
  • 311
24 votes
5 answers
2k views

Stack Exchange OpenID credentials not removed on logout, allowing insecure re-login

The cookies for subdomain, 'openid.stackexchange.com' are not, as claimed, actually removed from the browser upon logging out of stackexchange.com, but they should be. Applies to: * stackexchange.com,...
MarkDBlackwell's user avatar
23 votes
2 answers
673 views

Did something change with Stack Exchange's cross-domain login process? (no longer working)

I have my web browser set to block all third-party cookies. The only place where this is an issue is on Stack Exchange sites, where it prevents a log in action on one site from successfully logging ...
End Anti-Semitic Hate's user avatar
23 votes
1 answer
370 views

OpenID endpoints and URL will be removed on November 1, 2022

Back in 2018, we announced the end of support for OpenID at Stack. Although we've deprecated support for OpenID logins and endpoints, the openid.stackexchange.com URL has remained online. Starting in ...
Jeremiah Peschka's user avatar
19 votes
3 answers
347 views

Don't give away incorrect password/username info

I don't think it's safe or even good practice to tell a user specifically what part of my authentication credentials is faulty. I practically guessed my way to my correct username because SO let me ...
kolossus's user avatar
  • 582
18 votes
1 answer
190 views

Don't tell me which of my credentials is wrong

If I mistype my username or password when logging in to Stack Exchange, the red dialogue box tells me which was incorrect. If an attacker correctly guesses an email address present in the database ...
cat's user avatar
  • 969
16 votes
1 answer
159 views

Will Google+ APIs shutting down affect signing in into Stack Exchange sites?

According to this article, Google+ APIs will shut down on March 7, 2019. Since I am using Google to provide authentication for several web sites (SE sites included), I am wondering if SE network will ...
Alexei's user avatar
  • 1,469
16 votes
0 answers
273 views

Store the full OpenID URL, including scheme and domain name, differentiating HTTP from HTTPS

The association of an OpenID with the relying part must store the scheme used (OpenID spec 11.5.2): 11.5.2. HTTP and HTTPS URL Identifiers Relying Parties MUST differentiate between URL ...
Lawrence Dol's user avatar
  • 4,759
15 votes
0 answers
193 views

Stack Exchange & Area 51 sign up/ log in update

As of today, Stack Exchange and Area 51 no longer have separate login and signup pages. When you log in or sign up on either site you will be sent through meta.stackexchange.com flow. Currently, ...
Joe Friend's user avatar
  • 16.5k
14 votes
2 answers
311 views

What does "No referrer was present" mean, and how can I log in?

I'm trying to log into chat (and now StackExchange as a whole after step 7), and I'm getting a mysterious error message: No referer was present - this may be due to a browser setting This appears to ...
user avatar
14 votes
0 answers
373 views

I keep getting logged out of Stack Overflow

This has been reported quite a few times over the years, both with Chrome and Firefox (and maybe others, I did not read all the comments). Since it is driving me crazy (but it's not like there is an ...
JonasVautherin's user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
636 views

Log in to Disqus with StackExchange OpenID

Disqus shows three fields on their login page: "Username or Email", "Password", and "OpenID URL". If you put https://openid.stackexchange.com into "OpenID URL" (...
duozmo's user avatar
  • 223
11 votes
1 answer
172 views

Can't remove applications

A couple days ago I added a application from StackApps, now for some reason I can't remove it. Steps to reproduce: Have an application on your account Go to your profile (Edit Profile & ...
André's user avatar
  • 305
11 votes
0 answers
150 views

Google auth seems broken

I can't seem to login using my Google account. Luckily I still have an active session on the main things I care about but when I log into anything with my Google auth, I get: There was an error ...
Daniel A. White's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
146 views

Why does StackExchange log me in after I've visited the page? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Why does it says welcome back -user- click here to “refresh page” TL;DR: This is a technical/programming question, not an off topic question about the Stack ...
Greg's user avatar
  • 201
10 votes
1 answer
746 views

Is stackauth.com still in use?

Once upon a time, stackauth.com was used for global authentication, for the API, etc. And the StackAuth home page still states: This is a domain for centralized services across the entire Stack ...
Awesome Poodles's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
130 views

What scope to supply to get a refresh token from Stack Exchange?

In the process of implementing a OAuth app for Stack Exchange, I noticed that none of the approaches that conventionally work - supplying a offline_access scope, for example - result in the OAuth ...
Benn's user avatar
  • 103
9 votes
2 answers
330 views

How secure is using Google account authentication with Stack Overflow?

I would like to know how secure is it to use Google account authentication for logging in to Stack Overflow and other sister sites. Can one take any additional security measures?
vaichidrewar's user avatar
8 votes
4 answers
1k views

Can Stack Overflow implement single sign on for its all sites?

Can Stack Overflow implement single sign on so that users do not have to sign-in again when they visit other Stack Exchange sites like Meta Stack Overflow, Server Fault, Super ...
Azhar's user avatar
  • 1,559
7 votes
1 answer
2k views

Where and how is the authentication cookie stored with the new authentication system?

My browser is configured with several cookie restrictions (clear cookies on exit, no third party cookies, and privacy badger on top of that). I found that after SE recently switched to a new ...
Federico Poloni's user avatar
7 votes
4 answers
5k views

Active content on page causing multiple "proxy authentication required" dialogs to open

My work internet connection runs behind a proxy with pretty standard filtering to keep us away from watching silly videos on youtube all day. I'm running Firefox 11 on Windows and it is configured to ...
Ophidian's user avatar
  • 267
7 votes
1 answer
68 views

Links between my SE accounts should bypass login

When I get a notification in my inbox in the upper left corner about an event on one of the SE sites other than the one I am logged into, frequently I have to login again. This is mildly annoying, ...
tripleee's user avatar
  • 13.4k
7 votes
1 answer
220 views

Support certificate based authentication

See: Cutting the Gordian Knot of Web Identity Please consider adding certificate-based authentication to Stack Exchange as another form of authentication. I believe this method of authentication is ...
Zoredache's user avatar
  • 3,012
7 votes
0 answers
114 views

Logging in to the Area 51 Discussion Zone will successfully log you into the main Area 51 site, but not the Discussion Zone itself

In the Area 51 Discussion Zone (DZ), the log in link is for area51.stackexchange.com, not area51.meta.stackexchange.com. Because of domain restrictions, etc., after successfully logging in you get ...
curiousdannii's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
399 views

Enable two-step verification for all Stack Exchange sites [duplicate]

I have two-step verification (via Google Authenticator) enabled for almost all of my accounts on the Internet. I somehow feel safe with that. I have enabled two-step verification for almost all my ...
abhimanyuaryan's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
624 views

Logging in to Stack Overflow with private key

Most of the time you access Linux machines you'll use SSH with a private key. You add your public key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys and done, you can login using your private key and passphrase. To serve ...
Andomar's user avatar
  • 6,201
6 votes
1 answer
2k views

Authentication API - port number in redirect_uri is ignored

We're using the API explicit flow for identity brokering in our Keycloak SSO server to provide users with the option for logging in using their Stack Overflow account. Recently, we've noticed that ...
vasam's user avatar
  • 63
6 votes
2 answers
43k views

Firefox popup 'Authentication Required' when accessing Stack Overflow

One of the more recent updates to Firefox started to popup a message whenever I access StackOverflow from my work machine, along the lines of: 'The proxy moz-proxy://xxx:8080 is requesting a user ...
Dave Richardson's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
83 views

Why am I occasionally logged in to different domains, or am I?

When I log out, I usually get a message saying I will be logged out of these seven domains: Notwithstanding the fact I don't know what most of these are, nor consciously visit any of them apart from ...
Rick's user avatar
  • 2,150
6 votes
1 answer
160 views

Increasingly difficult to be logged out - what's going on?

Logging out of the stack exchange sites is a bit of a formality for me. I only log in from the one PC which no-one else has access to. I'm aware that there are ways that people could impersonate me if ...
user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
253 views

How can I "authenticate" my Stack Exchange API app without OAuth authenticating it?

I am the creator of StackStalker, a Chrome extension created to simply monitor questions a user chooses and be notified when they've been updated. I've been working on updating it to use the new API 2....
Jason's user avatar
  • 433
5 votes
1 answer
159 views

Using oAuth in API throwing internal server error

My application has 26 users, but yesterday several (prospective) users started receiving an error page (/error?aspxerror=/oauth) saying that it is all [stack exchange's] fault and that the data is ...
Watchtower's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
623 views

Why can't I login to StackOverflow using my Technorati OpenID?

When I try to login to StackOverflow via my Technorati OpenID I get ""No OpenID endpoint found." I checked and double-checked my URL and it appears to be correct. Luckily I had a Google OpenID ...
Rob Sobers's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
95 views

Top navbar not updated when login session is invalidated

tl;dr When editing existing post after your session has been invalidated in the background, editor itself reflects the fact that user has been logged-off, but top navbar remains unchanged and still ...
trejder's user avatar
  • 4,011
4 votes
1 answer
346 views

How do you log in from work using your personal account while you are already logged into Google?

I have a personal Stackoverflow account with points and stuff. I want to log in with that. I normally authenticate with Google. My work uses Google apps and I have a Google work address. How do I ...
Chloe's user avatar
  • 781
4 votes
1 answer
58 views

Join this Community bug on Area51

When I clicked on the "Join This Community" banner on an area 51 question, I was redirected to the following page: https://area51.stackexchange.com/users/join?ssrc=head&returnurl=http%3a%2f%...
KyleMit's user avatar
  • 6,064
4 votes
1 answer
72 views

Cannot login to chat when primary OpenID is Stack Exchange OpenID

Over at Super User account, I have Stack Exchange OpenID set as my primary OpenID. I can no longer login to chat using it - I get stuck at this screen I can repro the same using Chrome, IE9 & ...
Sathyajith Bhat's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
542 views

API authentication channelUrl from a userscript?

The Stack Exchange API has this Javascript library for authentication. What do I pass as channelUrl for a user script running on SE sites? The docs said it needed to be "a blank page on the same ...
Jason C's user avatar
  • 25.9k
4 votes
1 answer
519 views

ASP.NET forms authentication cookie

StackOverflow appears to not use asp.net forms authentication cookies anymore (see: https://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/08/a-few-speed-improvements). So - my question is - how is stackoverflow keeping ...
rifferte's user avatar
  • 143
4 votes
0 answers
44 views

Port not included in client-side OAuth flow

I was recently making an app using the SE API's client-side auth flow. What I noticed is that there was this Unable to post message to http://localhost. Recipient has origin http://localhost:5000. ...
Downgoat's user avatar
  • 856
4 votes
0 answers
670 views

StackExchange Single Sign on

What is the technique or procedure used in implementing Single Sign On in StackExchange websites? Whether it is possible to implement custom authentication providers so that the site credentials can ...
Arun S's user avatar
  • 141
3 votes
1 answer
284 views

How does StackExchange chain its subdomains?

I'd like to know how StackExchange works? Is it just one installation which is divided to different parts or they use a separated installation for each subject? Askubuntu.com, tex.stackexchange.com, ...
mini's user avatar
  • 169
3 votes
1 answer
47 views

How are the 2 Open IDs linked on StackExchange?

All these days I have been logging into SO with my Gmail Id. Contrarily, yesterday I logged in with my Facebook Id, and I was linked to the same SO account automatically. That was a very handy thing ...
Alexander's user avatar
  • 298