webui not accepting my password (reopeinig #1896)

[runarorested]

This is a: Bug on the web user interface

Details

WebUI fails to log in when using Firefox.

Related Issues

• [*] I have searched this repository/Pi-hole forums for existing issues and pull requests that look similar

#1896

How to reproduce the issue

1. Environment data

• Operating System: Debian 13.2
• Hardware: PC - HP ProLiant MicroServer N40L - Turion II Neo - 8 GB RAM
• Kernel Architecture: amd64
• Docker Install Info and version:
  • Software source: oficial docker image pihole/pihole:latest
  • Supplimentary Software: cockpit
• Hardware architecture: x86

2. Docker comands for set up.
   On NAS (IPv4: 192.168.1.10)

$docker container create --name=pihole --restart unless-stopped --env TZ=Europe/Madrid --env FTLCONF_webserver_api_password=admin --env FTLCONF_dns_listeningMode=ALL --volume /user/all/pihole:/etc/pihole --network host --publish 53/udp --publish 53/tcp --publish 31480/tcp --publish 31443/tcp --cap-add NET_ADMIN pihole/pihole:latest

$docker container start pihole

3. Browsing from Windows 10 using Firefox 146.0 (64-bit).

• When logging in both at http://192.168.1.10:31480/admin/login or https://192.168.1.10:31443/admin/login, entering the right password makes no visible effect, and shows the log in form again.
• When entering the wrong passwod, the "Wrong password!"message is shown, so the form works.
• Entering the right password several times makes the message "API seats exceeded
  increase webserver.api.max_sessions" appear, which seems to indicate that the log in succeeds and the sessions are created, but the redirection to the control panel (http://192.168.1.10/admin/) fails.

I've disabled all browser extensions, cleared all cached files and cookies, and restarted the container.

Chrome, Edge and other Chromium based browsers works without issue (Windows PC and Android phones).

These common fixes didn't work for my issue

• [*] I have tried removing/destroying my container, and re-creating a new container
• [*] I have tried fresh volume data by backing up and moving/removing the old volume data
• [*] I have tried running the stock docker run example(s) in the readme (removing any customizations I added)
• I have tried a newer or older version of Docker Pi-hole (depending what version the issue started in for me)
• [*] I have tried running without my volume data mounts to eliminate volumes as the cause

As you can see, the password used does not have any special characters, and works in other browsers, so it is not a set up issue.
I though a problem with redirections due to some extension, but it works in other browsers with adblocking extension enabled, and does not work in Firefox with all extensions disabled.

Docker logs: ($docker logs pihole)

  [i] Setting up user & group for the pihole user
  [i] ID for user pihole is already 1000, no need to change
  [i] ID for group pihole is already 1000, no need to change

  [i] Starting FTL configuration
  [i] Assigning password defined by Environment Variable
  [i] Starting crond for scheduled scripts. Randomizing times for gravity and update checker

  [i] Ensuring logrotate script exists in /etc/pihole

  [i] Gravity migration checks
  [i] Existing gravity database found - schema will be upgraded if necessary
     

  [i] pihole-FTL pre-start checks
  [i] Setting capabilities on pihole-FTL where possible
  [i] Applying the following caps to pihole-FTL:
        * CAP_CHOWN
        * CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE
        * CAP_NET_RAW
        * CAP_NET_ADMIN
        * CAP_SYS_NICE
        * CAP_SYS_TIME

  [i] Starting pihole-FTL (no-daemon) as pihole

  [i] Version info:
      Core version is v6.3 (Latest: v6.3)
      Web version is v6.4 (Latest: v6.4)
      FTL version is v6.4.1 (Latest: v6.4.1)

2025-12-17 16:59:11.328 CET [68M] INFO: ########## FTL started on nas-santander! ##########
2025-12-17 16:59:11.328 CET [68M] INFO: FTL branch: master
2025-12-17 16:59:11.328 CET [68M] INFO: FTL version: v6.4.1
2025-12-17 16:59:11.328 CET [68M] INFO: FTL commit: 8d1add8d
2025-12-17 16:59:11.329 CET [68M] INFO: FTL date: 2025-11-27 18:02:19 +0000
2025-12-17 16:59:11.329 CET [68M] INFO: FTL user: pihole
2025-12-17 16:59:11.329 CET [68M] INFO: Compiled for linux/amd64 (compiled on CI) using cc (Alpine 14.2.0) 14.2.0
2025-12-17 16:59:11.886 CET [68M] INFO: 2 FTLCONF environment variables found (2 used, 0 invalid, 0 ignored)
2025-12-17 16:59:11.887 CET [68M] INFO:    [✓] FTLCONF_dns_listeningMode is used
2025-12-17 16:59:11.887 CET [68M] INFO:    [✓] FTLCONF_webserver_api_password is used
2025-12-17 16:59:11.889 CET [68M] INFO: Wrote config file:
2025-12-17 16:59:11.889 CET [68M] INFO:  - 162 total entries
2025-12-17 16:59:11.889 CET [68M] INFO:  - 151 entries are default
2025-12-17 16:59:11.889 CET [68M] INFO:  - 11 entries are modified
2025-12-17 16:59:11.889 CET [68M] INFO:  - 1 entry is forced through environment
2025-12-17 16:59:11.892 CET [68M] INFO: Parsed config file /etc/pihole/pihole.toml successfully
2025-12-17 16:59:11.893 CET [68M] INFO: PID file does not exist or not readable
2025-12-17 16:59:11.893 CET [68M] INFO: No other running FTL process found.
2025-12-17 16:59:12.040 CET [68M] INFO: PID of FTL process: 68
2025-12-17 16:59:12.041 CET [68M] INFO: listening on 0.0.0.0 port 53
2025-12-17 16:59:12.041 CET [68M] INFO: listening on :: port 53
2025-12-17 16:59:12.074 CET [68M] INFO: PID of FTL process: 68
2025-12-17 16:59:12.077 CET [68M] INFO: Database version is 21
2025-12-17 16:59:12.078 CET [68M] INFO: Database successfully initialized
2025-12-17 16:59:12.092 CET [68M] INFO: Imported 8 queries from the on-disk database (it has 8 rows)
2025-12-17 16:59:12.092 CET [68M] INFO: Parsing queries in database
2025-12-17 16:59:12.097 CET [68M] INFO: Imported 8 queries from the long-term database
2025-12-17 16:59:12.097 CET [68M] INFO:  -> Total DNS queries: 8
2025-12-17 16:59:12.097 CET [68M] INFO:  -> Cached DNS queries: 3
2025-12-17 16:59:12.097 CET [68M] INFO:  -> Forwarded DNS queries: 5
2025-12-17 16:59:12.097 CET [68M] INFO:  -> Blocked DNS queries: 0
2025-12-17 16:59:12.098 CET [68M] INFO:  -> Unknown DNS queries: 0
2025-12-17 16:59:12.098 CET [68M] INFO:  -> Unique domains: 6
2025-12-17 16:59:12.098 CET [68M] INFO:  -> Unique clients: 2
2025-12-17 16:59:12.098 CET [68M] INFO:  -> DNS cache records: 0
2025-12-17 16:59:12.098 CET [68M] INFO:  -> Known forward destinations: 1
2025-12-17 16:59:12.531 CET [68M] INFO: FTL is running as user pihole (UID 1000)
2025-12-17 16:59:12.531 CET [68M] INFO: Reading certificate from /etc/pihole/tls.pem ...
2025-12-17 16:59:12.531 CET [68M] WARNING: SSL/TLS certificate /etc/pihole/tls.pem does not match domain santander.martinezad.es!
2025-12-17 16:59:12.533 CET [68M] INFO: Using SSL/TLS certificate file /etc/pihole/tls.pem
2025-12-17 16:59:12.534 CET [68M] INFO: Web server ports:
2025-12-17 16:59:12.534 CET [68M] INFO:   - 0.0.0.0:80 (HTTP, IPv4, optional, OK)
2025-12-17 16:59:12.534 CET [68M] INFO:   - 0.0.0.0:443 (HTTPS, IPv4, optional, OK)
2025-12-17 16:59:12.534 CET [68M] INFO:   - [::]:80 (HTTP, IPv6, optional, OK)
2025-12-17 16:59:12.534 CET [68M] INFO:   - [::]:443 (HTTPS, IPv6, optional, OK)
2025-12-17 16:59:12.564 CET [68M] INFO: Restored 14 API sessions from the database
2025-12-17 16:59:12.607 CET [68M] INFO: Blocking status is enabled
2025-12-17 16:59:12.635 CET [68/T105] INFO: Compiled 0 allow and 0 deny regex for 2 clients in 0.1 msec
2025-12-17 16:59:16.717 CET [68/T104] INFO: Received 8/8 valid NTP replies from pool.ntp.org
2025-12-17 16:59:16.718 CET [68/T104] INFO: Time offset: 8.780361e+02 ms (excluded 0 outliers)
2025-12-17 16:59:16.718 CET [68/T104] INFO: Round-trip delay: 2.138156e+01 ms (excluded 0 outliers)
2025-12-17 16:59:17.596 CET [68/T104] INFO: Local time is too inaccurate, retrying in 600 seconds before launching NTP server
2025-12-17 17:09:23.465 CET [68/T104] INFO: Received 8/8 valid NTP replies from pool.ntp.org
2025-12-17 17:09:23.465 CET [68/T104] INFO: Time offset: 4.367286e+02 ms (excluded 0 outliers)
2025-12-17 17:09:23.465 CET [68/T104] INFO: Round-trip delay: 1.560998e+01 ms (excluded 0 outliers)
2025-12-17 17:09:23.465 CET [68/T376] INFO: NTP server listening on :::123 (IPv6)
2025-12-17 17:09:23.465 CET [68/T375] INFO: NTP server listening on 0.0.0.0:123 (IPv4)

[rdwebdesign]

Do you see any error messages on the Firefox console (CTRL+Shift+I)?

Chrome, Edge and other Chromium based browsers works without issue (Windows PC and Android phones).

This is an indication of a specific browser issue, not a Pi-hole bug. Also, I use Firefox and I don't see this issue.

[runarorested]

The only error I get in the console is a 401 on https://192.168.1.10:31443/api/auth when viewing the login page, but I get it too in Chrome browsers.

When entering the password in Firefox, there is no extra error, just the same in the same page.
When entering in Chrome, it redirects me to the dashboard, with no errors.

I thing I've found the error and a possible solution: if you run multiple dockers that create a SID cookie, it will not overwrite it until you go though the console > Storage > cookies and manually remove it.

In other browsers it will work somehow, maybe keeping cookies per tab, or overwriting it as it should, which would boot you out from the other web panels, but would let you log in the one for pihole.

Possible solutions:
1- If it loads a invalid session-id value (the 'SID' cookie), put an error notification about it on the log in form, so you know and can manually clear the cookie.
2- Rename the cookie 'SID' to an unique name, like 'pihole', by default, like other panels do, or allow to personalize it by enviroment variable or pihole. config file

[github-actions]

This issue is stale because it has been open 30 days with no activity. Please comment or update this issue or it will be closed in 5 days.

[Brugman]

Thought I had this issue, clearing cookies fixed it.