Can't login at fresh install

[scarecr0w12]

I'm having an issue where after creating the intial account, i can't login, it just says invalid login. Ive reinstalled and tried several times and does this each time.

[adminsyspro]

Hi @scarecr0w12, thanks for reporting this!

We looked into the login flow and the password hashing is consistent between setup and login, so this shouldn't be a general bug. To help us investigate further, could you provide some details?

1. Which version of ProxCenter are you running? (check Settings > About, or the Docker image tag)
2. Are you using a reverse proxy (Traefik, Nginx, Caddy)? If so, is it terminating SSL?
3. Do you see any errors in the Docker logs when the login fails? You can check with:

   docker logs proxcenter 2>&1 | grep -i -A2 'login_failed\|error\|auth'

The logs should show the exact failure reason (user not found, wrong password, account disabled, etc.) which will help us pinpoint the issue.

Thanks!

[scarecr0w12]

Hi @scarecr0w12, thanks for reporting this!

We looked into the login flow and the password hashing is consistent between setup and login, so this shouldn't be a general bug. To help us investigate further, could you provide some details?

1. Which version of ProxCenter are you running? (check Settings > About, or the Docker image tag)
2. Are you using a reverse proxy (Traefik, Nginx, Caddy)? If so, is it terminating SSL?
3. Do you see any errors in the Docker logs when the login fails? You can check with:

   docker logs proxcenter 2>&1 | grep -i -A2 'login_failed\|error\|auth'

The logs should show the exact failure reason (user not found, wrong password, account disabled, etc.) which will help us pinpoint the issue.

Thanks!

I'm just running what ever comes with the one-liner install. I simply ran the installer and then registered an account. No logs come up and it says that there isn't a "Proxcenter" only the frontend is running it appears. running docker compose up -d in /opt/proxcenter/ just ruhs teh front end.

[adminsyspro]

Hi @scarecr0w12,

Thanks for the additional info! The fact that only the frontend is running is actually normal for the Community edition - the container is named proxcenter-frontend, not proxcenter. The login is handled entirely by the Next.js frontend with SQLite, no backend needed.

Since we haven't had any other reports of this issue, could you try a clean install from scratch? Remove everything and re-run the one-liner installer:

cd /opt/proxcenter && docker compose down -v
rm -rf /opt/proxcenter

Then re-run the install script. This will regenerate all secrets and the database from scratch. Let us know if the issue persists after that!

[scarecr0w12]

Still the same issue, i even did a full clean install, it still does not accept a login after creating an account.

[scarecr0w12]

Kind of disheartening for a system to not work on a fully clean, fully fresh OS installation for a first time user.................

[adminsyspro]

I'm checking the issue, it will be fixed quickly. Sorry for the bug

[adminsyspro]

Hi @scarecr0w12,

We've just tested a completely fresh install on Debian 13 using the one-liner script, and everything works as expected: setup page appears, account creation works, and login succeeds right after.

A few things that could explain your issue:

1. Stale Docker volume: If you had a previous install, docker compose down -v does not remove the proxcenter_data volume because it's marked as external. Your old database (with old credentials) would survive the reinstall. To fully clean up:

cd /opt/proxcenter && docker compose down && docker volume rm proxcenter_data && rm -rf /opt/proxcenter

1. Then re-run the installer.
2. Browser cookies: If you reinstalled multiple times, old session/CSRF cookies from a previous install (with a different secret) can interfere with login. Try in a private/incognito window or clear your cookies for the ProxCenter URL.

Could you try the full cleanup above + incognito window and let us know if the issue persists?

[scarecr0w12]

Still the same issue. I did a fully fresh install of Ubuntu 24.04, apt upgrade, then ran the installer, registered an account, and still gives me a login error with the related browser console error. I even did all of this via a incognito window. This system just does not work.

[adminsyspro]

Hi @scarecr0w12,

Thanks for the screenshot and for testing on a fresh Ubuntu 24.04 install. We appreciate your patience.

The 401 error on /api/v1/license/status in your console is expected and harmless. It's a license check that runs on page load but has no impact on the login process itself.

To help us pinpoint the actual login failure, could you run this right after a failed login attempt?

docker logs proxcenter-frontend 2>&1 | tail -50

This will show us the server-side reason for the rejection (user not found, wrong password, etc.) and help us figure out what's going on.

Thanks!

[scarecr0w12]

[adminsyspro]

Thanks for the logs! As expected, the Docker logs only show startup info, not login failures. The auth failures are stored in the database.

Could you run this after a failed login attempt?

docker exec proxcenter-frontend node -e "
const Database = require('better-sqlite3');
const db = new Database('/app/data/proxcenter.db');
const rows = db.prepare(\"SELECT timestamp, action, user_email, error_message, details FROM audit_logs WHERE action = 'login_failed' ORDER BY timestamp DESC LIMIT 10\").all();
console.log(JSON.stringify(rows, null, 2));
"

This will show us the exact failure reason (user not found, wrong password, etc.) from the database.

[scarecr0w12]

doesn't look like its attempting at all to touch the database?

[adminsyspro]

Interesting! The empty [] result means the login attempt never reaches the authentication logic at all. The failure happens at a lower level (NextAuth session/CSRF validation).

This is most likely caused by a NEXTAUTH_URL mismatch. Could you run:

cat /opt/proxcenter/.env | grep NEXTAUTH_URL

And compare the URL shown there with the URL you're using in your browser to access ProxCenter. They need to match exactly (same IP/hostname, same port, same protocol).

[scarecr0w12]

URL matches what im using to access

NEXTAUTH_URL=http://10.10.20.219:3000

[adminsyspro]

OK, URL matches so that's not the issue. Let's dig deeper.

Could you run these two checks?

1. Verify the secret is properly loaded in the container:

docker exec proxcenter-frontend printenv NEXTAUTH_SECRET | head -c 5

(Only shows the first 5 characters for security)

2. Check the actual HTTP response when login fails:

In your browser DevTools, go to the Network tab, attempt a login, and look for the POST request to /api/auth/callback/credentials. What is the HTTP status code and response body? A screenshot of that request would be very helpful.

[scarecr0w12]

It appears it was my Bitdefender blocking it because it sends the password unencrypted, which is very concerning for a system that connects to promox hosts and controls them

[adminsyspro]

Glad we found the root cause! Bitdefender was blocking the unencrypted password in the HTTP request before it could even reach the server.

You're right that running ProxCenter over plain HTTP is not ideal, especially since it manages your Proxmox infrastructure. We strongly recommend setting up a reverse proxy with SSL. Here's a quick example with Nginx and Let's Encrypt:

sudo apt install nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx

# Create Nginx config
sudo tee /etc/nginx/sites-available/proxcenter << 'CONF'
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name proxcenter.yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    }
}
CONF

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/proxcenter /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx

# Get SSL certificate
sudo certbot --nginx -d proxcenter.yourdomain.com

This will also resolve the Bitdefender issue since credentials will be encrypted over HTTPS.