Feature Request: Default superuser email points to a public mailbox (security risk) + request for admin email API #12164
Description
Description:
When creating the Dataverse superuser during the initial setup, the system automatically assigns the following email address: [email protected].
This is a potential security vulnerability, because mailinator.com is a public mailbox service — anyone can access emails sent to that address without authentication.
As a result, an attacker who knows this default email could easily initiate a password reset and take over the Dataverse superuser account on instances where the administrator didn’t change the default email after installation.
Expected Behavior:
The superuser email should either:
- Require a custom email to be provided during setup, or
- Default to a placeholder that is clearly invalid (e.g. [email protected]) to prompt immediate replacement.
Proposed Solutions:
- Change the default superuser email to a non-functional placeholder, or enforce a prompt during setup to specify a valid administrator email address.
- Add an API endpoint to allow administrators to securely change the superuser/admin email address via curl.
This would improve automation and security management, by enabling scripted rotation or correction of the admin email without relying on manual UI operations.
See also https://groups.google.com/g/dataverse-community/c/mLEdP8p24RM/m/KIIrqE-4BAAJ