Moderators can create/change categories such that they lose access

zogstrip · December 12, 2025, 4:24pm

Thanks for the report @Steradiant

We’ll now show a confirm dialog if the user is about to lose access to a category by changing its permissions

github.com/discourse/discourse

UX: Warn moderators before they lock themselves out of a category

main ← prevent-moderator-self-lockout

opened 04:23PM - 12 Dec 25 UTC

ZogStriP

+123 -1

When moderators with `moderators_manage_categories` enabled change category perm…issions, they could accidentally remove their own access, requiring admin intervention to fix. This adds a client-side confirmation dialog that warns moderators before saving permission changes that would lock them out. If confirmed, the changes are saved and the user is redirected to the home page. Changes: - Add `_wouldLoseAccess()` check in edit-category controller that compares new permissions against the user's group memberships - Show confirmation dialog via `dialog.yesNoConfirm()` before saving - Redirect to home page after confirmed save (since user can no longer access the category edit page) - Fix `onSelectGroup` to properly set `group_id` for custom groups by looking up from `site.groups` (was only working for auto groups) Here's how the confirm dialog looks like <img width="1606" height="1043" alt="CleanShot 2025-12-12 at 17 12 55" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/86e255dc-fa5c-4fde-8c86-3d3b0e03ce89" /> Ref - https://meta.discourse.org/t/390978

Topic		Replies	Views
Moderators can change groups such that they lose access Bug groups	0	21	December 15, 2025
Moderator without access to a category can't change category notification settings for a user who does Bug	13	2371	June 1, 2017
Block Moderation on Admin Category Support	3	297	June 2, 2023
Mod permissions and access Feature	6	3419	July 22, 2019
Issue with category permissions only for moderators Bug	9	802	May 10, 2019

Moderators can create/change categories such that they lose access

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