Invitations: an existing account gets a registration link, and unchecked input creates broken invitees

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Assessment

Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Newbie friendliness
70/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
php
Domain
authentication

Research direction

Start with settingspage::invite() in system/datatypes/settings.php around line 112, then read the member list logic around line 676 and the related user and mail functions. Trace the supplied reproduction cases for existing accounts, comma-separated addresses, and empty input. Done means invalid or existing-account addresses are handled safely, users are added once, and pending invitees display correctly.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Impact: Low Level: Easy Type: Bug Value: Security Value: Users

settingspage::invite() (system/datatypes/settings.php:112) does not check what it gets:

  1. Address of an existing account. hypha_addUser() refuses the address (user exists), but the result is ignored; hypha_getUserByEmail() then returns the existing account and hypha_addUserRegistrationKey() gives that account a registration key. The invitation mail goes to the owner of the account with a settings/register/<key> link, through which the user name, password, e-mail and language of that account can be set. Any member can do this for any account, including an administrator's. Together with #425 (invitation keys from uniqid(), never expiring) this leaves a standing password-reset link on accounts that did not ask for one.
  2. No validation of the input. The field is split on , without trim() or filter_var(). [email protected], [email protected] stores the second address with a leading space; sendMail() then refuses it, but the invitee is kept. An empty field creates an invitee without an address.
  3. hypha_addUser() is called twice per address (lines 119 and 123); for an empty address the second call creates a second, empty user without key.
  4. The member list shows invitation pending only for rights == 'invite' (line 676), but invitees have rights="invitee", so an open invitation shows as a row with empty name columns.

Steps to reproduce. Log in as a member, settings → invite: (1) the administrator's address: the administrator account gets a key attribute and an invitation mail; (2) [email protected], [email protected]: the second invitee has email=" [email protected]"; (3) an empty field: two users without address are added.

Tested on PHP 8.2, 8.4 and 8.5 with a fictional test site (main, d97ab7b). Suggested direction: trim and validate each address, refuse addresses that already belong to an account (or only re-send for invitees), call hypha_addUser() once and compare with 'invitee' in the member list.

Dominant language
JavaScript
Stars
5
Forks
9
Avg merge
18h 49m
Merged PRs (30d)
13

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