Unable to Authenticate After Portainer Update

Issue

After updating Portainer, login attempts result in a 403 Forbidden error. The UI loads correctly, but authentication fails.

Symptoms

• Logging in returns “Unable to login” with no server-side logs.
• Browser console shows:

POST https://<your-domain>/portainer/api/auth 403 (Forbidden)

Cause

Portainer releases include security patches, including fixes for known CVEs. These changes invalidate existing authentication sessions server-side. However, the client (browser) may still store outdated tokens in cache or local storage, leading to failed authentication requests.

Resolution

Clear your browser cache and try logging in again.

Alternative Workaround

Open the Portainer login page in an incognito/private browsing window and attempt to log in from there.

Technical Context

Authentication tokens persisted in local storage or cookies can conflict with the updated server-side session handling introduced in this version. Since no auth request is successfully processed by the server, there are no related logs.