Attention

TYPO3 v10 has reached end-of-life as of April 30th 2023 and is no longer being maintained. Use the version switcher on the top left of this page to select documentation for a supported version of TYPO3.

Need more time before upgrading? You can purchase Extended Long Term Support (ELTS) for TYPO3 v10 here: TYPO3 ELTS.

Password Reset Functionality

It is possible for TYPO3 Backend users to reset their password if using the default TYPO3 login mechanism.

To show the reset link, the following criteria needs to be matched:

  • The user has a password entered previously (used to indicate that no third-party login was used)

  • The user has a valid email added to their user record

  • The user is neither deleted nor disabled

  • The email address is only used once among all Backend users of the instance

Once the user has entered their email address, an email is sent out with a link to set a new password, which needs to have a least eight characters. The link is valid for 2 hours, and a token is added to the link. If the password was provided correctly, it is updated for the user, and they can log in.

Notes on security

  • When having multiple users with the same email address, no reset functionality is provided.

  • No information disclosure is built-in, so if the email address is not in the system, it is not disclosed to the outside.

  • Rate limiting is activated for allowing three emails to be sent within 30 minutes per email address.

  • Tokens are stored in the database but hashed again, just like the password.

  • When a user has logged in successfully (e.g., because they remembered the password), the token is removed from the database, effectively invalidating all existing email links.

Global Configuration

The feature is active by default and can be deactivated entirely via the system-wide configuration option:

$GLOBALS['TYPO3_CONF_VARS']['BE']['passwordReset']

Optionally it is possible to restrict this feature to non-admins only by setting the following system-wide option to "false".

$GLOBALS['TYPO3_CONF_VARS']['BE']['passwordResetForAdmins']

Both options are available to be configured within the Maintenance Area > Settings module or in the Install Tool but can be set manually via typo3conf/LocalConfiguration.php or typo3conf/AdditionalConfiguration.php.

Reset password for user

Administrators can reset a user's password. This is especially useful for security purposes, so an administrator does not need to send a password over the wire in plaintext (e.g. email) to a user.

The administrator can use the CLI command:

./typo3/sysext/core/bin/typo3 backend:resetpassword https://example.org/typo3/ editor@example.org

where usage is described like this:

backend:resetpassword <backendurl> <email>

Note

The backend URL is necessary to generate the correct links to the TYPO3 instance from CLI context.