E-mail account invalidated by recipient of activation e-mail
 

This hack was designed for vBulletin 2.2.7 and may or may not work on later or earlier versions. It allows
the e-mail recipient of a registration or e-mail change verification e-mail to mark the e-mail address as
invalid. For example, if Sally registers an account on your forum using Jack's e-mail address, Jack can
follow a link in the registration e-mail he receives to mark the e-mail as invalid. Sally will need to
change her e-mail address in the user cp and click on the activation link sent to her new e-mail address
before her account will be validated.

Before installing this hack, it is recommended that you install the security fix discussed here:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...threadid=55142


Four files need to be modified. There are a total of seven file edits: register.php, member.php, newthread.php, newreply.php
Five templates need to be added: error_accountcanceled, error_invalidcancelid, error_alreadycanceled, error_canceledthanks, cancelform
Two templates need to be modified: email_activateaccount, email_activateaccount_change

REMEMBER: Back up your database and files before attempting to install this or any other hack.

Support for this hack will only be given within the thread on vbulletin.org. E-mail/PMs regarding this thread will be ignored.

I don't understand the need for this. If Jack received an e-mail asking to confirm membership from a site he's never heard of he isn't likely to click the link is he?

But, you could (as an Admin) go through later and purge invalid accounts.

While it's rare that someone would accidentally register with someone else's e-mail address, the possibility exists for users to either 1. create accounts intentionally to spam someone (i.e. you have a vBulletin site that is a pedophilia support group and think it'd be a hoot to sign up your co-worker), or 2. create accounts with invalid e-mails (that turn out to be valid) in order to get around the need for providing an e-mail address.

After applying the suggested fix from the vbulletin.com forum, clicking on this link would prevent "reset password" or "activation codes" e-mail floods. I think there's a better discussion for the need of this hack over on the vb.com forums.

On our site, our policy is to let accounts requiring e-mail validation to post without restriction. With this hack, by following the cancelation link in the signup e-mail, the recipient would cause the user to receive a message stating that his or her e-mail address was incorrect and force him/her to change the e-mail address. If you only allow registered, activated users to post, then obviously, this hack is not for you. Since vBulletin gives the option to allow unconfirmed accounts to post, we thought this would be a good hack to release.

We obviously have a problem with invalid e-mails ;) Currently close to one-third of our users have not activated their accounts. We're trying to close up any holes that would allow a method of spamming and to detect any abuse of the system.

An interesting modification to this hack might be some sort of interface in the Admin CP showing accounts which have been marked with invalid e-mail addresses. Doing so would be relatively easy. Perhaps I'll add that functionality tonight if I get a chance.

Paul

That would be good:)

It sounds very interesting:)

Satan

Not a bad little hack :)

- SaintDog

Now you've explained more, I understand better. Good work. :)