This page can help you identify the users at risk, as well as potential issues of the update.
## The risk: users get emails that require confirmation
During the update process to GitLab 13.2, a background migration is run for accounts that meet the
conditions for the security issue. Such users are marked as _unconfirmed_.
An initial email is sent to _unconfirmed_ users to describe the issue. A second email is then
sent within five minutes, with a link for users to re-confirm the subject email address.
## Do the confirmation emails expire?
The links in these re-confirmation emails expire after one day by default. Users who click an expired link will be asked to request a new re-confirmation email. Any user can request a new re-confirmation email from `http://gitlab.example.com/users/confirmation/new`.
## Generate a list of affected users
You can generate this list before and after the upgrade using different methods.
### Before an upgrade to GitLab 13.2
Use the following code to search for users who:
- Are currently confirmed.
- Include identical `confirmed_at` times.
- Also have a secondary email address.
```ruby
emails_and_users_that_will_be_unconfirmed=Email.joins(:user).merge(User.active).where('emails.confirmed_at IS NOT NULL').where('emails.confirmed_at = users.confirmed_at').where('emails.email <> users.email')
```
### After an upgrade to GitLab 13.2
Use the following code to search for users who:
- Are currently **not** confirmed.
- Are also pending confirmation on or after the date of upgrade.
A regular user might receive a message that says "You have to confirm your email address before continuing". This message could includes a 404 or 422 error code, when the user tries to sign in.
NOTE: **Note:**
We hope to improve the [sign-in experience for an unverified user](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/29279) in a future release.
When an affected user commits code to a Git repository, that user may see the following message:
```shell
Your account has been blocked. Fatal: Could not read from remote repository
```
You can assure your users that they have not been [Blocked](admin_area/blocking_unblocking_users.md) by an administrator.
When affected users see this message, they must confirm their email address before they can commit code.
## What do I need to know as an administrator of a GitLab Self-Managed Instance?
You have the following options to help your users:
- They can confirm their address through the email that they received.
- They can confirm the subject email address themselves by navigating to `https://gitlab.example.com/users/confirmation/new`.
As an administrator, you may also confirm a user in the [Admin Area](admin_area/#administering-users).
## What do I do if I am an administrator and I am locked out?
If you are an administrator and cannot otherwise verify your email address, sign in to your GitLab
instance with a [Rails console session](../administration/troubleshooting/navigating_gitlab_via_rails_console.md#starting-a-rails-console-session).
Once connected, run the following commands to confirm your administrator account:
```ruby
admin=User.find_by_username"root"#replace with your admin username