User Switching

FAQ

Funktioniert dieses Plugin mit PHP 8?

Yes, it’s actively tested and working up to PHP 8.4.

Was bedeutet „Abmeldung simulieren“?

„Abmeldung simulieren“ meldet dich von WordPress ab, aber behält deine Benutzer-ID in einem Authentifizierungs-Cookie damit du auf Knopfdruck wieder zurückwechseln kannst, ohne dich richtig einloggen zu müssen. Es simuliert eine Abmeldung zum Status „nicht angemeldet“, kann aber rückgängig gemacht werden.

The Switch Off link can be found in your profile menu in the WordPress toolbar. Once you’ve switched off you’ll see a Switch back link in a few places:

• In the footer of your site
• On the Log In screen
• In the „Meta“ widget

Funktioniert dieses Plugin mit WordPress Multisite?

Ja, und du wirst auch aus der Benutzer-Übersicht in der Netzwerkverwaltung zu Benutzern wechseln können.

Funktioniert dieses Plugin mit WooCommerce?

Yes, and you’ll also be able to switch users from various WooCommerce administration screens while logged in as a Shop Manager or an administrative user.

Funktioniert dieses Plugin zusammen mit BuddyPress?

Ja, und du kannst Benutzer auch von der Ansicht des Benutzerprofils und der Mitgliederauflistung wechseln.

Funktioniert dieses Plugin zusammen mit bbPress?

Ja, und du kannst auch Benutzer vom Mitgliederprofil-Bereich wechseln.

Funktioniert dieses Plugin, wenn meine Webseite eine Zwei-Faktor-Authentifizierung benutzt?

Ja, meistens.

Eine Ausnahme die mir bekannst ist, ist Duo Security. Wenn du das Plugin benutzt, solltest du das User Switching für Duo Security Add-on Plugin installieren, welches den Dialog der Zwei-Faktoren-Authentifizierung verhindert, wenn du zwischen Benutzern wechselst.

Welche Berechtigungen braucht ein Benutzer um Nutzerkonten wechseln zu können?

Ein Benutzer benötigt die edit_users Fähigkeit um Benutzerkonten zu wechseln. Standardmäßig haben nur Administratoren diese Fähigkeit, und mit Multisite aktiviert haben nur Super Admins diese Fähigkeit.

Specifically, a user needs the ability to edit the target user in order to switch to them. This means if you have custom user capability mapping in place which uses the edit_users or edit_user capabilities to affect ability of users to edit others, then User Switching should respect that.

Können normale Administratoren Nutzerkonten in einer Multisite-Umgebung wechseln?

Nein. Allerdings kann dies durch Installation des Plugins User Switching for Regular Admins ermöglicht werden.

Kann die Berechtigung für einen Benutzerwechsel auch anderen Benutzern oder Rollen zugewiesen werden?

Yes. The switch_users meta capability can be explicitly granted to a user or a role to allow them to switch users regardless of whether or not they have the edit_users capability. For practical purposes, the user or role will also need the list_users capability so they can access the Users menu in the WordPress admin area.

add_filter( 'user_has_cap', function( $allcaps, $caps, $args, $user ) {
    if ( 'switch_to_user' === $args[0] ) {
        if ( my_condition( $user ) ) {
            $allcaps['switch_users'] = true;
        }
    }
    return $allcaps;
}, 9, 4 );

Note that this needs to happen before User Switching’s own capability filtering, hence the priority of 9.

Can the ability to switch accounts be denied from users?

Yes. User capabilities in WordPress can be set to false to deny them from a user. Denying the switch_users capability prevents the user from switching users, even if they have the edit_users capability.

add_filter( 'user_has_cap', function( $allcaps, $caps, $args, $user ) {
    if ( 'switch_to_user' === $args[0] ) {
        if ( my_condition( $user ) ) {
            $allcaps['switch_users'] = false;
        }
    }
    return $allcaps;
}, 9, 4 );

Hinweise:

• This needs to happen before User Switching’s own capability filtering, hence the priority of 9.
• The ID of the target user can be found in $args[2].

Can I add a custom „Switch To“ link to my own plugin or theme?

Ja. Verwende dazu die Methode user_switching::maybe_switch_url(). Diese kümmert sich um die Authentifizierung und gibt eine nonce-geschützte URL zurück, mit der der aktuelle Benutzer in das angegebene Benutzerkonto wechseln kann.

if ( method_exists( 'user_switching', 'maybe_switch_url' ) ) {
    $url = user_switching::maybe_switch_url( $target_user );
    if ( $url ) {
        printf(
            '<a href="%1$s">Switch to %2$s</a>',
            esc_url( $url ),
            esc_html( $target_user->display_name )
        );
    }
}

If you want to specify the URL that the user gets redirected to after switching, add a redirect_to parameter to the URL like so:

if ( method_exists( 'user_switching', 'maybe_switch_url' ) ) {
    $url = user_switching::maybe_switch_url( $target_user );
    if ( $url ) {
        // Redirect to the home page after switching:
        $redirect_to = home_url();
        printf(
            '<a href="%1$s">Switch to %2$s</a>',
            esc_url( add_query_arg(
                'redirect_to',
                rawurlencode( $redirect_to ),
                $url
            ) ),
            esc_html( $target_user->display_name )
        );
    }
}

The above code also works for displaying a link to switch back to the original user, but if you want an explicit link for this you can use the following code:

if ( method_exists( 'user_switching', 'get_old_user' ) ) {
    $old_user = user_switching::get_old_user();
    if ( $old_user ) {
        printf(
            '<a href="%1$s">Switch back to %2$s</a>',
            esc_url( user_switching::switch_back_url( $old_user ) ),
            esc_html( $old_user->display_name )
        );
    }
}

Can I determine whether the current user switched into their account?

Yes. Use the current_user_switched() function for this. If the current user switched into their account from another then it returns a WP_User object for their originating user, otherwise it returns false.

if ( function_exists( 'current_user_switched' ) ) {
    $switched_user = current_user_switched();
    if ( $switched_user ) {
        // User is logged in and has switched into their account.
        // $switched_user is the WP_User object for their originating user.
    }
}

Can I log each time a user switches to another account?

You can install an audit trail plugin such as Simple History, WP Activity Log, or Stream, all of which have built-in support for User Switching and all of which log an entry when a user switches into another account.

Does this plugin allow a user to frame another user for an action?

Potentially yes, but User Switching includes some safety protections for this and there are further precautions you can take as a site administrator:

• You can install an audit trail plugin such as Simple History, WP Activity Log, or Stream, all of which have built-in support for User Switching and all of which log an entry when a user switches into another account.
• User Switching stores the ID of the originating user in the new WordPress user session for the user they switch to. Although this session does not persist by default when they subsequently switch back, there will be a record of this ID if your database server has query logging enabled.
• User Switching stores the login name of the originating user in an authentication cookie (see the Privacy Statement for more information). If your server access logs store cookie data, there will be a record of this login name (along with the IP address) for each access request.
• User Switching triggers an action when a user switches account, switches off, or switches back (see below). You can use these actions to perform additional logging for safety purposes depending on your requirements.

One or more of the above should allow you to correlate an action with the originating user when a user switches account, should you need to.

Bear in mind that even without the User Switching plugin in use, any user who has the ability to edit another user can still frame another user for an action by, for example, changing their password and manually logging into that account. If you are concerned about users abusing others, you should take great care when granting users administrative rights.

Does this plugin warn me if I attempt to switch into an account which somebody else is already switched into?

Yes. When this happens you’ll be shown a prompt asking you to confirm that you would like to continue switching to the affected account.

This feature is useful if you have multiple users on your site who may be switching into other user accounts at the same time, for example a team of support agents.

Kann ich direkt aus der Adminleiste zu anderen Benutzern wechseln?

Ja, dafür gibt es ein Plugin eines Drittanbieters Admin Bar User Switching.

Werden beim Wechsel von Nutzerkonten irgendwelche Plugin-Aktionen aufgerufen?

Ja. Sobald jemand zu einem anderen Account wechselt, wird der Hook switch_to_user aufgerufen:

/**
 * Fires when a user switches to another user account.
 *
 * @since 0.6.0
 * @since 1.4.0 The `$new_token` and `$old_token` parameters were added.
 *
 * @param int    $user_id     The ID of the user being switched to.
 * @param int    $old_user_id The ID of the user being switched from.
 * @param string $new_token   The token of the session of the user being switched to. Can be an empty string
 *                            or a token for a session that may or may not still be valid.
 * @param string $old_token   The token of the session of the user being switched from.
 */
do_action( 'switch_to_user', $user_id, $old_user_id, $new_token, $old_token );

Wenn jemand zum ursprünglichen Account zurückwechselt, wird der Hook switch_back_user aufgerufen:

/**
 * Fires when a user switches back to their originating account.
 *
 * @since 0.6.0
 * @since 1.4.0 The `$new_token` and `$old_token` parameters were added.
 *
 * @param int       $user_id     The ID of the user being switched back to.
 * @param int|false $old_user_id The ID of the user being switched from, or false if the user is switching back
 *                               after having been switched off.
 * @param string    $new_token   The token of the session of the user being switched to. Can be an empty string
 *                               or a token for a session that may or may not still be valid.
 * @param string    $old_token   The token of the session of the user being switched from.
 */
do_action( 'switch_back_user', $user_id, $old_user_id, $new_token, $old_token );

Wenn ein Benutzer die Abmeldung simuliert, wird der Hook switch_off_user aufgerufen:

/**
 * Fires when a user switches off.
 *
 * @since 0.6.0
 * @since 1.4.0 The `$old_token` parameter was added.
 *
 * @param int    $old_user_id The ID of the user switching off.
 * @param string $old_token   The token of the session of the user switching off.
 */
do_action( 'switch_off_user', $old_user_id, $old_token );

When a user switches to another account, switches off, or switches back, the user_switching_redirect_to filter is applied to the location that they get redirected to:

/**
 * Filters the redirect location after a user switches to another account or switches off.
 *
 * @since 1.7.0
 *
 * @param string       $redirect_to   The target redirect location, or an empty string if none is specified.
 * @param string|null  $redirect_type The redirect type, see the `user_switching::REDIRECT_*` constants.
 * @param WP_User|null $new_user      The user being switched to, or null if there is none.
 * @param WP_User|null $old_user      The user being switched from, or null if there is none.
 */
return apply_filters( 'user_switching_redirect_to', $redirect_to, $redirect_type, $new_user, $old_user );

In addition, User Switching respects the following filters from WordPress core when appropriate:

• login_redirect beim Wechsel zu einem anderen Benutzer.
• logout_redirect beim Simulieren der Abmeldung.

How can I report a security bug?

You can report security bugs through the official User Switching Vulnerability Disclosure Program on Patchstack. The Patchstack team helps validate, triage, and handle any security vulnerabilities.

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