Resolved Error getting administrator credentials - illegal token when decoding JSON

[davemoondog]

Server operating system version

Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS

Plesk version and microupdate number

Plesk Obsidian v18.0.50_build1800230213.19 os_Ubuntu 18.04

We're seeing problems interacting with sites in Plesk (Cloning, logging in, ...) that have the Elementor Pro plugin installed and are running on PHP 8.1.

When logging into a site like that, we get the error message in Plesk "Error getting administrator credentials: An error has occurred when decoding JSON: Illegal Token"

Disabling the plugin removes the problem.

I would guess that Elementor will have to make some updates to their plugin, but I'm trying to find out where exactly in their plugin this problem is caused so I can point it out and get it fixed quicker (at least I hope).

There is nothing showing up in the WP debug.log about this error. Where else should I look to find out more?

cheers

 

[Peter Debik]

This is a known issue of Elementor which does not work with PHP 8.1 properly.

Elementor & PHP 8.1

Forums » Plugin: Elementor Website Builder – More than Just a Page Builder » Elementor & PHP 8.1 Elementor & PHP 8.1 Resolved Michael Sutter (@michih) 1 year, 4 months ago…

wordpress.org

Some users have reported that upgrading to PHP 8.2 fixes the issue. Would you want to try it?

Also Plesk has logged this issue as ID [EXTWPTOOLK-10276] and will try to provide a built-in workaround in a future update of the WP Toolkit.

 

[davemoondog]

Thanks @Peter Debik, we updated all our sites to 8.2 and the issues are gone!

Weird fix, but if it works, it works

 

[n0fear]

Looks like the problem came back with php 8.2. updated sites from php 8.0 to 8.2. and have now the exact problem with "Error getting administrator credentials: An error has occurred when decoding JSON: Illegal Token" any idea?

 

[n0fear]

This is a known issue of Elementor which does not work with PHP 8.1 properly.

Elementor & PHP 8.1

Forums » Plugin: Elementor Website Builder – More than Just a Page Builder » Elementor & PHP 8.1 Elementor & PHP 8.1 Resolved Michael Sutter (@michih) 1 year, 4 months ago…

wordpress.org

Some users have reported that upgrading to PHP 8.2 fixes the issue. Would you want to try it?

Also Plesk has logged this issue as ID [EXTWPTOOLK-10276] and will try to provide a built-in workaround in a future update of the WP Toolkit.

Hi Peter, could you and your team please take a look on this again? It must be some other problem, because, i changed al sites from PHP 8.0 to PHP 8.2 and the error occurs for me. Chaning back to PHP 8.1 it works again.

 

[Peter Debik]

Have you seen the comments in Elementor & PHP 8.1 It was clear that it is an Elementor issue, but if you believe that it is a Plesk issue, you could still open a Plesk support ticket at https://support.plesk.com and Plesk support staff will be happy to check this once again.

 

[n0fear]

Have you seen the comments in Elementor & PHP 8.1 It was clear that it is an Elementor issue, but if you believe that it is a Plesk issue, you could still open a Plesk support ticket at https://support.plesk.com and Plesk support staff will be happy to check this once again.

Thanks Peter, well the really strange things why i think its not a elementor only problem are:

1. I have multiple sites working perfekt with php 8.2.1, WPToolkit login and Elementor Version 3.16.4 and Elementor Pro Version 3.16.2
with all the latest Version. I can login since days without a problem
2. I have sites with the same php and plugin Version. I could login one time. Like 10 Minutes ago. After that i wanted to log in again, click on login i get
that "token error" message, even still logged in on another tab! Going back to php 8.1 fixes the problem on that. Did not do any update on the site.

I will open a ticket.

 

[Exou]

We have similiar problem and I just tested this with one site and disabled elementor and then login through plesk/wordpress toolkit is working.
And it is with php 8.2.11

Some sites with elementor and php 8.2 is working.

Sometimes I don't get any error codes(new tab just closes) and sometimes it gives me that json error illigal token.

 

[LRob]

For my part I don't use Elementor, because as we can see it's junk code that breaks every now and then for various reasons, and it also goes against WordPress's original design.

But my customers use it and I'm facing this bug with PHP 8.2 and latest Elementor... The bug also happens when checking for updates. To me it's most likely a bug in WP Toolkit because of non standard update URL. So... What do we do now to report to WP Toolkit team?

 

[n0fear]

For my part I don't use Elementor, because as we can see it's junk code that breaks every now and then for various reasons, and it also goes against WordPress's original design.

But my customers use it and I'm facing this bug with PHP 8.2 and latest Elementor... The bug also happens when checking for updates. To me it's most likely a bug in WP Toolkit because of non standard update URL. So... What do we do now to report to WP Toolkit team?

it is a really strange problem and i hope plesk is checking that soon. If you go to this, it has nbothing to do with the url. i even have sties using elementor pro and elementor php 8.2. that work, and sites that do not work. If you chewck this im portant

https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/13302778467991

there is a Comment below the article telling login works when beeing in Active List View inside Plesk, and i could reproduce this. Login works there. What makes it even stranger. If i go back to PHP 8.1 it works, too.

 

[Peter Debik]

When noone goes through support and lets support staff examine the issue on an affected domain, it will probably not be fixed, because we cannot see what the situation is that causes it. So, please, open a ticket with support and allow SSH access to the support team so that they can check what is going on directly on your system.

 

[n0fear]

When noone goes through support and lets support staff examine the issue on an affected domain, it will probably not be fixed, because we cannot see what the situation is that causes it. So, please, open a ticket with support and allow SSH access to the support team so that they can check what is going on directly on your system.

Thanks Peter. I did that ofcause, too. But Support tells me, problem is Elementor and i should reinstall or use "simplest to log into Wordpress using the Active List rather than Dynamic List view" and i ask myself, what is the different inside plesk of login via active and login via dynamic list - when the Problem is a Elementor only bug... than both logins via plesk should not work, right? but i made a bug report at elementor too. cpanel wp toolkit has the same bug as i got told by support done by elementor.

 

[Peter Debik]

And did you ask support exactly that question? What the difference is?

 

[LRob]

Thanks Peter. I did that ofcause, too. But Support tells me, problem is Elementor and i should reinstall or use "simplest to log into Wordpress using the Active List rather than Dynamic List view" and i ask myself, what is the different inside plesk of login via active and login via dynamic list - when the Problem is a Elementor only bug... than both logins via plesk should not work, right? but i made a bug report at elementor too. cpanel wp toolkit has the same bug as i got told by support done by elementor.

Exactly, to me it's a WP Toolkit bug. Maybe there is a PHP class overlap or something. If that is the case, both of them didn't prefix their classes as advised in WordPress's guidelines. And even more strange, how can a script inside the website alter WP Toolkit's behavior? To me seems like a code injection could happen from a hacked WP website into WP Toolkit which is a major security concern and should lead into an overhaul of the WP Toolkit to prevent that.

Anyways, in case it wasn't linked already, somebody opened a git issue on Elementor side. Doesn't seem too promising but here it is.

Bug Report: Elementor PRO 3.16.2 breaks WP-TOOLKIT again like in #21431 · Issue #24063 · elementor/elementor

Prerequisites I have searched for similar issues in both open and closed tickets and cannot find a duplicate. The issue still exists against the latest stable version of Elementor. Description Elem...

github.com

 

[custer]

Hey everyone, we've fixed the login issue in the minor WP Toolkit v6.2.11 update. Sorry for the inconvenience!

 

[LRob]

Hey everyone, we've fixed the login issue in the minor WP Toolkit v6.2.11 update. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Good news, right for WP 6.4!
Any chance we can learn more about the root cause for the bug? Because it's still weird that it's linked to Elementor.

 

[n0fear]

Good news, right for WP 6.4!
Any chance we can learn more about the root cause for the bug? Because it's still weird that it's linked to Elementor.

As i understand, the plesk login command for WP Toolkit did stop formerly if there was any php error on the site. like because of new php versions. That did alot of problems, also with other buggy plugins before. I had that for example like 3 times 2023 and could not login with plesk toolkit on different sites that had errors. As i think, now plesk fixed that, so login does not break or stop when there are any php errors on the page not related to the login routine. But maybe @custer will tell more about that. Glad they fixed that! Thanks alot!