Auto Login to WordPress from another Website

Automatically login to Website B from Website A securely without using a password. We can accomplish this by using the wp_set_auth_cookie() function of WordPress.

Website A = The website requesting for an autologin link.
Website B = The wesite where you wish to be auto logged in.

NOTE: I am assuming you have two synchronized databases with the same usernames or user ID’s.

Execute this SQL query in your SQL Command Line to create a new table “wp_autologin”

1
2
3
4
5
CREATE TABLE DATABASE_NAME.wp_autologin (
  id INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  avatar VARCHAR(45) NULL,
  random_key VARCHAR(45) NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (id));

Step 1: Create a WordPress CUSTOM page in Website B. To avoid errors later on, just name it “autologin-api”

This is where we will be receiving requests coming from Website A

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
// Create initial default values for our data array
$err_succ = array(
    'key'   => 0,
    'status' => 'failed'
);

// Check if the received key is '54321' and if the action is 'get_login_key'
if( isset( $_POST ) && $_POST['key'] == '54321' && $_POST['action'] == 'get_login_key') {
   
    global $wpdb;
   
    // Check if we received a user_login from the POST, if yes - we sanitize it then save it to a variable
    $user_login = isset( $_POST['user_login'] ) ? sanitize_text_field( $_POST['user_login'] ) : '';
   
    // Get the random key of user from the database
    $user_random_key = $wpdb->get_var($wpdb->prepare("
        SELECT random_key FROM wp_autologin WHERE avatar = %s"
, $user_login) );
   
    // Count the number of user_login from the database. if query returns > 0, then it means it exists on the database.
    $check_user_login = $wpdb->get_var($wpdb->prepare("
        SELECT COUNT(user_login) FROM wp_users WHERE user_login = '%s'"
, $user_login ) );
   
    // Check if the received user_login exists on the wp_users table
    if ($check_user_login > 0) {   
       
        // Check if $user_random_key variable returned a random_key. If no, we generate another random key.
        if(empty($user_random_key)) {
       
            // Generate key using md5 random strings
            $hash_key = md5($user_login + rand(5, 15));
                   
            // Save the avatar(user_login) and key to the database
            $wpdb->insert(
                'wp_autologin',
                array(
                    'avatar' => $user_login,
                    'random_key' => $hash_key
                )
            );
           
        } else {
            // If $user_random_key variable returned a random_key, we return it to the requesting client.
            $hash_key = $user_random_key;
        }
       
        // Return the hash_key and set the status as success
        $err_succ['key'] = $hash_key;
        $err_succ['status'] = 'success';
           
    } else {
       
        // If the received user_login does not exist on the database, we return a failed status to the requesting client
        $err_succ['status'] = 'failed';
    }
}

// Set the array to a variable
$result = $err_succ;

// JSON encode the result then send it back to the requesting client
echo json_encode ($result);

Step 2: Create another WordPress CUSTOM page in Website B, name it “autologin”

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
global $wpdb;

// Check if user is already logged in, redirect to account if true
if (!is_user_logged_in()) {

    // Check if the key is set and not emtpy
    if(isset($_GET['key']) && !empty($_GET['key'])){

        // Sanitize the received key to prevent SQL Injections
        $received_key = sanitize_text_field($_GET['key']);
       
        // Find the username from the database using the received key
        $get_username = $wpdb->get_var($wpdb->prepare("SELECT avatar FROM wp_autologin WHERE random_key = %s", $received_key ) );
       
        // Check if query returned a result, throw an error if false
        if(!empty($get_username)){
       
            // Get user info from username then save it to a variable
            $user = get_user_by('login', $get_username );
           
            // Get the user id then set the login cookies to the browser
            wp_set_auth_cookie($user->ID);
           
            // To make sure that the login cookies are already set, we double check.
            foreach($_COOKIE as $name => $value) {
               
                // Find the cookie with prefix starting with "wordpress_logged_in_"
                if(substr($name, 0, strlen('wordpress_logged_in_')) == 'wordpress_logged_in_') {
               
                    // Redirect to account page if the login cookie is already set.
                    wp_redirect( home_url('/account/') );
                   
                } else {
               
                    // If NOT set, we loop the URL until login cookie gets set to the browser
                    wp_redirect( home_url('/autologin/?key=' . $received_key ) );
                       
                }
            }
           
        } else {
            echo 'Invalid Authentication Key';
        }
    } else {
        wp_redirect( home_url() );
    }

} else {
    wp_redirect( home_url('/account/') );
    exit;
}

Step 3: Send a request to Website B.

For this tutorial we are going to use cURL to send requests to Website B, feel free to use other techniques for sending HTTP requests.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
// Define the URL where we will be sending a request for a random key
    $api_url = "http://YOUR_WEBSITE_URL.com/autologin-api/";
   
    // If you are using WordPress on website A, you can do the following to get the currently logged in user:
    global $current_user;
    $user_login = $current_user->user_login;
   
    // Set the parameters
    $params = array(
        'action'            => 'get_login_key', // The name of the action on Website B
        'key'               => '54321', // The key that was set on Website B for authentication purposes.
        'user_login'       => $user_login // Pass the user_login of the currently logged in user in Website A
    );
   
    // Send the data using cURL
    $ch = curl_init($api_url);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query($params));
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    $gbi_response = curl_exec($ch);
    curl_close($ch);
   
    // Parse the response
    parse_str($gbi_response);
   
    // Convert the response from Website B to an array
    $data = json_decode($gbi_response, true);
   
    // Set the received key to a variable
    $key = $data['key'];

From here, you can now generate your link that will auto login to Website B.

1
echo '<a href = "http://YOUR_WEBSITE_URL.com/autologin/?'.$key.'">My Website B Account</a>';


Do you need help with a project? or have a new project in mind that you need help with?

Contact Me