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Joomla Lost password not sending mail

Open rbuelund opened this issue 1 month ago • 29 comments

When using Lost password, no email is sent to the user, but when using lost username an email IS sent.

rbuelund avatar Nov 20 '25 16:11 rbuelund

@rbuelund Which Joomla version? As you might know, there are always 2 versions in use, currently 5.4.0 and 6.0.0.

richard67 avatar Nov 20 '25 17:11 richard67

5.4

rbuelund avatar Nov 20 '25 17:11 rbuelund

Are you using the PHP Mailer? Or SMTP?

richard67 avatar Nov 20 '25 17:11 richard67

SMTP - and as written - the lost username function DOES send mails, only the lost password function does not.

rbuelund avatar Nov 20 '25 17:11 rbuelund

Tested on two different sites.

rbuelund avatar Nov 20 '25 17:11 rbuelund

I cannot replicate the issue. In J5 and J6 all mails are sent.

chmst avatar Nov 20 '25 18:11 chmst

I can't imagine a scenario in joomla where one is sent and the other is not

brianteeman avatar Nov 20 '25 19:11 brianteeman

There coud be an override of the lost password page. But perhaps it is only a typo in the mail-address?

chmst avatar Nov 20 '25 19:11 chmst

No type - tried several times, and with the exact same e-mail for lost username and lost password. Email only comes through for username.

rbuelund avatar Nov 20 '25 19:11 rbuelund

Can i in some way gather some more usefull info to this ?

rbuelund avatar Nov 20 '25 19:11 rbuelund

Which template are you using?

chmst avatar Nov 20 '25 19:11 chmst

Could it be a superadmin level user trying to fetch a password, which they cannot?

ot2sen avatar Nov 20 '25 20:11 ot2sen

Could it be a superadmin level user trying to fetch a password, which they cannot?

good point I forgot that

brianteeman avatar Nov 20 '25 21:11 brianteeman

The super user gets a message that he cannot require a new password.

chmst avatar Nov 20 '25 22:11 chmst

Are you sure as that would be a security vulnerability confirming that the email address is that of a super user. They just get the default

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brianteeman avatar Nov 20 '25 22:11 brianteeman

Well thank you all - exactly the problem! But how should super users know that? - I did not, or have forgotten it. Would it be a security risk to send a mail to the super user saying you cannot reset your password ? If the super users mail account has been hacked, well then the hacker would possibly know anyway that this is a super user on that site ?

rbuelund avatar Nov 21 '25 06:11 rbuelund

When I try the reset option, I get this message:

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Obviously a wrong message

chmst avatar Nov 21 '25 08:11 chmst

weird - i just tried again in both j5 and j6 and did not get that

brianteeman avatar Nov 21 '25 09:11 brianteeman

With e-mail address of the super user?

chmst avatar Nov 21 '25 09:11 chmst

yes

brianteeman avatar Nov 21 '25 09:11 brianteeman

I have no idea.

https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/blob/5.4-dev/components/com_users/src/Model/ResetModel.php#L425 this is the code. With false language Language Keys

chmst avatar Nov 21 '25 09:11 chmst

just rechecked on a clean 6.0 install - no change

brianteeman avatar Nov 21 '25 10:11 brianteeman

Just checked on a clean install of J5.4.0 Getting a user name reminder mail, but not a password mail for the super user. Same as Brian for the initial message. Not the strings from the com_users lang file.

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ot2sen avatar Nov 21 '25 20:11 ot2sen

The mail to the superuser is never sent - that is intentional. The message is depending on the Debug Setting - but the messages should not be different when debug mode is on. We will fix this. As for the supervisor we will send an email that the passwort cannot be reset this way.

MacJoom avatar Dec 06 '25 13:12 MacJoom

No you must not send an email. That's a security issue confirming that the email is for a super user.

brianteeman avatar Dec 06 '25 13:12 brianteeman

No you must not send an email. That's a security issue confirming that the email is for a super user.

Maybe @MacJoom mean that all other super users will get that email but not to the one who requests the password reset? Something like "Super user xyz has requested a password reset"?

richard67 avatar Dec 06 '25 13:12 richard67

If it's a superuser email we will send the message that it cannot be reset this way to this superuser - without displaying a different message on the screen. I see no disclosure of an information this way. No message is given on screen that an email is really beeing sent - the same with random email addresses

MacJoom avatar Dec 06 '25 13:12 MacJoom

I have gained control of the email and now I know that this email is for a superuser

brianteeman avatar Dec 06 '25 13:12 brianteeman

OK - then we cannot fix this issue anyway. But if one has control over the emails he/she could probably check older emails and find out anyway...

MacJoom avatar Dec 06 '25 13:12 MacJoom