Multiple members, one e-mail

[snib]

Hello SMF community,

I have been using multiple copies of your software (currently 1.1RC2) for about a year for various things including rpg boards where a single person may wish to register more than one account. The #1 complaint I get from my users is that you can't register one e-mail to multiple accounts.

I have searched for this issue here on the boards and elsewhere on the internet but I couldn't find a solution except to tell my members to get Yahoo accounts, which was not appreciated.

So after being bugged for a few days by this I dove into the SMF source code and found this in Sources/Subs-Members.php:

Code Select Expand

$request = db_query("
SELECT ID_MEMBER
FROM {$db_prefix}members
WHERE emailAddress = '$regOptions[email]'
OR emailAddress = '$regOptions[username]'
LIMIT 1", __FILE__, __LINE__);
// !!! Separate the sprintf?
if (mysql_num_rows($request) != 0)
fatal_error(sprintf($txt[730], htmlspecialchars($regOptions['email'])), false);
mysql_free_result($request);


Because the comment read "Check if the e-mail is in use" and the function is called "registerMember()" I commented this code out. Now everything seems to be fine, I can register with the same e-mail...

But is my website completely secure now? Is there some hidden reason I should not do this? Knowing PHP, I don't think anything else would be changed by getting rid of these lines but I would like to be sure if I can do this to all my rpg sites safely.

Thanks for any input concerning this.

[Dem0n]

Howmany accounts does one person really need? I think two is perfectly fine. Just have them make a seperate email account, and they are good to go. Most people have more than one email account anyways.

[snib]

As I said, I've tried telling my users to get free e-mail accounts but it's really inconvenient to check 2-3+ inboxes to see if they have a new PM or something. They want it more than one account on a single e-mail. And I have done it, but was wondering if there was a drawback to the way I have changed the Source.

The only problem I see is that when I send an e-mail to all my members, some inboxes will get several copies.. Perhaps I can change the e-mail function to fix this as well.

Thanks Dem0n for your input.

[fireman]

I may try this!
thanks

[Edward A Freeman]

if they have more then one account, they could always have the free accounts redirect the emails to their primary. I know this can be done in yahoo and MSN, not sure about Gmail tho.

[Rudolf]

@snib

I explored pretty much the SMF code and I don't see any security issue with having multiple accounts for one e-mail. It is just a feature.
But you should wait for an "official" answer to this.

Rudolf

[tomis]

if they have more then one account, they could always have the free accounts redirect the emails to their primary. I know this can be done in yahoo and MSN, not sure about Gmail tho.

  I think you've got it backwards.  It cannot be done in Yahoo & Hotmail, unless you pay, but you can forward for free with Gmail (and use POP3 access)

[Dannii]

emails in SMF are almost more unique than usernames. Did you know you can login by your email address? Having multiple members with the same email won't work.

[Harzem]

Also, I think if someone forgets his password, he cannot use "forgot my password" link. Because, it asks for the e-mail address and you cannot specify the username that has forgotten the password.

[Edward A Freeman]

if they have more then one account, they could always have the free accounts redirect the emails to their primary. I know this can be done in yahoo and MSN, not sure about Gmail tho.

  I think you've got it backwards.  It cannot be done in Yahoo & Hotmail, unless you pay, but you can forward for free with Gmail (and use POP3 access)

hotmail you are correct, my mistake, but I do have my Yahoo account forwarded.