Log back in as admin after locking yourself out with read-only mode or an invalid SSO configuration

zogstrip · July 8, 2025, 3:46pm

Thanks for the report @Moin, that should fix it (once and for all )

github.com/discourse/discourse

FIX: improve "read only" modes

main ← fix-readonly-take-2

opened 03:33PM - 08 Jul 25 UTC

ZogStriP

+519 -124

The reasons for these changes is https://meta.discourse.org/t/-/89605 broke and …admins were not able to log back in if they had previously enabled the "read only" mode. Thus ensued a deep dive into how all the "read only" modes worked, which was made difficult due to the lack of tests. The "cornerstone" of this PR is the `read_only_mixin.rb` file which was improved to be able to differentiate between the "readonly" mode and the "staff writes only" mode. I then made use of the `allow_in_readonly_mode` and `allow_in_staff_writes_only_mode` method to **explicitely** list all the actions that should work in those modes. I also added the "readonly" mixin to the `WebhooksController` since it doesn't inherit from the `ApplicationController`. I improved the security of the `/u/admin-login` endpoint by always sending the same message no matter if we found or not an admin account with the provided email address. I added two system specs: 1. for ensuring that admins can log in via /u/admin-lgoin and then clicking the link in the email they received while the site is in readonly mode. 2. for ensuring the "staff writes only mode" is _actually_ tested by ensuring a moderator can log in and create a topic while the site is in that mode. Plenty of specs were updated to ensure 100% converage of the various "read only" modes.

Topic		Replies	Views
How to log in my forum when the forum is in read-only mode? Support read-only	3	1442	November 28, 2022
Unable to login as admin after enabling read only mode Support read-only	12	3209	August 27, 2020
Accidentally made site read only, how do I disable? Support read-only	6	2560	August 18, 2017
Login disabled in read only mode Support	1	33	January 16, 2025
Discourse stuck in maintenance mode Installation	6	1273	August 10, 2022

Log back in as admin after locking yourself out with read-only mode or an invalid SSO configuration

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