Description

This is a feature plugin that is a spinoff of the main Two-Factor Authentication plugin, found at https://github.com/georgestephanis/two-factor/.

With Application Passwords you are able to authenticate a user without providing that user’s password directly, instead you will use a base64 encoded string of their username and a new application password.

Creating a New Application Password

1. Go the User Profile page of the user that you want to generate a new application password for. To do so, click Users on the left side of the WordPress admin, then click on the user that you want to manage.
2. Scroll down until you see the Application Passwords section. This is typically at the bottom of the page.
3. Within the input field, type in a name for your new application password, then click Add New.
   Note: The application password name is only used to describe your password for easy management later. It will not affect your password in any way. Be descriptive, as it will lead to easier management if you ever need to change it later.
4. Once the Add New button is clicked, your new application password will appear. Be sure to keep this somewhere safe, as it will not be displayed to you again. If you lose this password, it cannot be obtained again.

Testing an Application Password

WordPress REST API

This test uses the technologies listed below, but you can use any REST API request.

• WordPress REST API
• cURL
• Mac OSX or Linux
• A Mac or Linux terminal
• Local development environment (e.g. MAMP, XAMPP, DesktopServer, Vagrant) running on localhost

1. Now that you have your new password, you will need to base64 encode it using a terminal window as well as your username to use it with the REST API.
   The command you will use is as follows:
   shell
echo -n "USERNAME:PASSWORD" | base64
   Within this, you will replace USERNAME:PASSWORD with your username and newly generated application password. For example:
   shell
echo -n "admin:mypassword123" | base64

2. Once your username and password are base64 encoded, you are now able to make a simple REST API call using the terminal window to update a post. Because you are performing a POST request, you will need to authorize the request using your newly created base64 encoded access token. If authorized correctly, you will see the post title update to “New Title.”
   shell
curl --header "Authorization: Basic ACCESS_TOKEN" -X POST -d "title=New Title" http://LOCALHOST/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/POST_ID}
   When running this command, be sure to replace ACCESS_TOKEN with your newly generated access token, LOCALHOST with the location of your local WordPress installation, and POST_ID with the ID of the post that you want to edit.

XML-RPC

This test uses the technologies listed below, but you can use any XML-RPC request.

• XML-RPC enabled within WordPress
• cURL
• Mac OSX or Linux
• A Mac or Linux terminal
• Local development environment (e.g. MAMP, DesktopServer, Vagrant) running on localhost

Once you have created a new application password, it’s time to send a request to test it. Unlike the WordPress REST API, XML-RPC does not require your username and password to be base64 encoded. To begin the process, open a terminal window and enter the following:
shell
curl -H 'Content-Type: text/xml' -d '<methodCall><methodName>wp.getUsers</methodName><params><param><value>1</value></param><param><value>USERNAME</value></param><param><value>PASSWORD</value></param></params></methodCall>' LOCALHOST
In the above example, replace USERNAME with your username, and PASSWORD with your new application password. This should output a response containing all users on your site.