Magento 2 Admin Login: Disable 2FA

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July 14, 2022

By Mohammed Noufal

Magento 2 Admin Login: Disabling 2FA Temporarily

Admin users can disable the Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) by using the command line methods from the Magento 2 root directory documented in this article.

Magento 2 Admin Login & Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

What is Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)?

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) is one category of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) that strengthens access security requirements by needing two authentication factors/methods to verify your identity.

Why Would You Want to Disable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) in Magento 2.4 & Greater Versions?

Although earlier versions of Magento offered options to not install or to disable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), Magento 2.4 and greater versions enable 2FA by default on every installation. The Magento admin user must disable 2FA using the command line.

While it is never recommended to disable 2FA in Magento 2.4 and greater versions, given its strength of security, there are a few scenarios in which you may want to disable it:

1. To enable the admin user to log into the Magento 2 Admin Panel Dashboard for the first time due to 2FA warning message.

2. When 2FA is not needed in a staging environment.

3. When 2FA is not needed in a testing environment.

4. When 2FA is not needed in a development environment.

Magento 2.4 & Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

By default, Magento will enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) after Magento version 2.4. So, before logging into the Magento Admin Panel Dashboard, the admin users will need to configure their 2FA either through the user interface or a web API. The 2FA provides an additional layer of security to the Magento 2 Admin Panel, making it harder for suspicious users to log in to the Magento 2 Admin Panel Dashboard without authorization. It also helps decrease the chance of questionable access to the Magneto 2 Admin Panel Dashboard. So, we do not recommend that you disable 2FA authentication in your Magento 2 Admin Panel Dashboard for security reasons. If you still do not wish to use 2FA, you can disable 2FA for the development, testing, or staging, environment or store.

Once you install Magento 2 for your domain, you will receive the following warning message while trying to access the Magento Admin Panel Dashboard for the first time:

Warning Message Accessing Magento 2 Admin Panel Dashboard

Due to this warning message, you will not be able to log in to the Magento 2 Admin Panel Dashboard. Unfortunately, Magento 2.4 and greater versions do not provide an option to disable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). But you can disable the 2FA by following any of the command line methods from your Magento 2 root directory.

Command Line Method #1: Magento 2 Admin Login & Disabling 2FA Temporarily

The first command line method for disabling 2FA temporarily from your Magento 2 root directory is done by issuing the following command:

php bin/magento module:disable Magento_TwoFactorAuth

bin/magento cache:flush

Command Line Method #2: Magento 2 Admin Login & Disabling 2FA Temporarily

The second command line method for disabling 2FA temporarily from your Magento 2 root directory is done by issuing the following command:

bin/magento config:set twofactorauth/general/enable 0

bin/magento cache:flush

Command Line Method #3: Magento 2 Admin Login & Disabling 2FA Temporarily

The third command line method for disabling 2FA temporarily from your Magento 2 root directory is done by taking the following steps:

Open the app folder -> etc -> config.php using any of the text editors (for example the VI Text Editor) from your Magento 2 root directory:

vi <Magento 2 root directory>/app/etc/config.php

Find 'Magento_TwoFactorAuth' => 1, and replace with 'Magento_TwoFactorAuth' => 0,

Where you use a value of 0 for disabling 2FA and a value of 1 for enabling 2FA.

3. Clean the cache by the following command:

bin/Magento cache:flush

Now you will be able to log into the Magento Admin Panel Dashboard without using Two-Factor Authentication (2FA).

Installing Magento 2 via Composer or a ZIP/TAR Archive File

You can install Magento 2 either using Composer or downloading an archive file for the Magento-specific version in either ZIP or TAR archive file format. But please note that installing Magento from an archive lacks the advantages of using Composer, including reusing third-party libraries without wrapping them with source code, reducing extension conflicts and compatibility issues by using a component-based architecture with robust dependency management, etc. In addition, you should install Elasticsearch before installing Magento 2.4, and Magento does not support Elasticsearch versions 2.x, 5.x, and 6.x.

Installing Magento 2 via Composer

To install Magento 2 using Composer, you can follow the below steps.

Installing Magento 2 via Composer Step #1: Install Composer

You can run the following scripts in the terminal to install Composer in the current directory:

#To download the installer to the current directory

php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"

#To verify the installer SHA-384

php -r "if (hash_file('sha384', 'composer-setup.php') === '906a84df04cea2aa72f40b5f787e49f22d4c2f19492ac310e8cba5b96ac8b64115ac402c8cd292b8a03482574915d1a8') { echo 'Installer verified'; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'; unlink('composer-setup.php'); } echo PHP_EOL;"

#To run the installer

php composer-setup.php

#To remove the installer

php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"

These installer scripts will check some php.ini settings, notify you if they are set incorrectly, and then download the latest composer.phar in the current directory.

If you want to put the composer.phar into a particular location as per your requirement, you can call composer from any location such as the following directory:

mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

Issue the composer --help command to see available options for specific environments.

Installing Magento 2 via Composer Step #2: Install Magento 2.4.

To install Magento 2.4 via Composer, you can run the following commands in the current directory:

composer create-project --repository-url=https://repo.magento.com/magento/project-community-edition:2.4.0 .

You can choose the Magento version in the command shown above as per your requirement by replacing the 2.4.0 with the version you wish to install.

bin/magento setup:install --base-url=http://example.com --db-host=localhost --db-name=<db_name> --db-user=<db_user> --db-password=<db_password> --admin-firstname=Admin --admin-lastname=Admin --admin-email=<your_email> --admin-user=admin --admin-password=<your_password> --use-rewrites=1 --elasticsearch-host=<elasticsearch-hostname> –-elasticsearch-port=<elasticsearch-port> --backend-frontname="admin" --db-prefix=mage_

You can run the following commands in the Magento root directory to set file permissions:

find var generated vendor pub/static pub/media app/etc -type f -exec chmod g+w {} +

find var generated vendor pub/static pub/media app/etc -type d -exec chmod g+ws {} +

chown -R <owner>:<group> .

chmod u+x bin/magento

Issue the bin/magento list command to display a complete list of commands. Issue the bin/magento help <command> to get help for a particular command.

Magento 2.4 Requirements

Mail Server: Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) or an SMTP Server.
Operating Systems (Linux x86-64): Linux distributions, such as RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), CentOS, Ubuntu, and Debian. Magento is not supported on Microsoft Windows and macOS.
PHP Extensions: ext-bcmath,ext-ctype, ext-curl, ext-dom, ext-fileinfo, ext-gd, ext-hash, ext-iconv, ext-intl, ext-json, ext-libxml, ext-mbstring, ext-openssl, ext-pcre, ext-pdo_mysql, ext-simplexml, ext-soap , ext-sockets, ext-sodium, ext-xmlwriter, ext-xsl, ext-zip, lib-libxml, lib-openssl.
PHP OPcache: The OPcache is enabled in many PHP distributions and is recommended for performance reasons.
PHPUnit: PHPUnit (as a command-line tool) 9.0.0
RAM: Magento applications and extensions upgrade requires up to 2GB of RAM. If the system has less than 2GB of RAM, you will need to create a swap file to avoid upgrade failure.
System Dependencies: bash, gzip, lsof, mysql , mysqldump, nice, php, sed, tar.
SSL: A valid security certificate is required for HTTPS.

Conclusion

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Mohammed Noufal

Mohammed Noufal is a B.Tech graduate with a decade of experience in server administration and web hosting. He has a specialization in various cloud technologies and server management, including monitoring, configuring, troubleshooting, and maintenance.

He is a father to two daughters and finds fulfillment in their growth. In his free time, he enjoys blogging about technology, sharing experiences, traveling, making new friends, social networking, and listening to music.

With a strong technical background, family commitment, and creative outlets, he represents a well-rounded life journey.

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