- Probably the world's most popular code for sending email from PHP!
- Used by many open-source projects: WordPress, Drupal, 1CRM, SugarCRM, Yii, Joomla! and many more
- Integrated SMTP support - send without a local mail server
- Integrated SMTP support – send without a local mail server
- Send emails with multiple To, CC, BCC and Reply-to addresses
- Multipart/alternative emails for mail clients that do not read HTML email
- Add attachments, including inline
- Support for UTF-8 content and 8bit, base64, binary, and quoted-printable encodings
- SMTP authentication with LOGIN, PLAIN, CRAM-MD5 and XOAUTH2 mechanisms over SSL and SMTP+STARTTLS transports
- SMTP authentication with LOGIN, PLAIN, CRAM-MD5, and XOAUTH2 mechanisms over SMTPS and SMTP+STARTTLS transports
- Validates email addresses automatically
- Protect against header injection attacks
- Protects against header injection attacks
- Error messages in over 50 languages!
- DKIM and S/MIME signing support
- Compatible with PHP 5.5 and later
- Compatible with PHP 5.5 and later, including PHP 8.0
- Namespaced to prevent name clashes
- Much more!
## Why you might need it
Many PHP developers utilize email in their code. The only PHP function that supports this is the `mail()` function. However, it does not provide any assistance for making use of popular features such as HTML-based emails and attachments.
Many PHP developers need to send email from their code. The only PHP function that supports this directly is [`mail()`](https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.mail.php). However, it does not provide any assistance for making use of popular features such as encryption, authentication, HTML messages, and attachments.
Formatting email correctly is surprisingly difficult. There are myriad overlapping (and conflicting) standards, requiring tight adherence to horribly complicated formatting and encoding rules – the vast majority of code that you'll find online that uses the `mail()` function directly is just plain wrong, if not unsafe!
Formatting email correctly is surprisingly difficult. There are myriad overlapping RFCs, requiring tight adherence to horribly complicated formatting and encoding rules - the vast majority of code that you'll find online that uses the `mail()` function directly is just plain wrong!
*Please* don't be tempted to do it yourself - if you don't use PHPMailer, there are many other excellent libraries that you should look at before rolling your own - try [SwiftMailer](https://swiftmailer.symfony.com/), [Zend/Mail](https://zendframework.github.io/zend-mail/), [eZcomponents](https://github.com/zetacomponents/Mail) etc.
The PHP `mail()` function usually sends via a local mail server, typically fronted by a `sendmail` binary on Linux, BSD, and macOS platforms, however, Windows usually doesn't include a local mail server; PHPMailer's integrated SMTP client allows email sending on all platforms without needing a local mail server. Be aware though, that the `mail()` function should be avoided when possible; it's both faster and [safer](https://exploitbox.io/paper/Pwning-PHP-Mail-Function-For-Fun-And-RCE.html) to use SMTP to localhost.
The PHP `mail()` function usually sends via a local mail server, typically fronted by a `sendmail` binary on Linux, BSD and OS X platforms, however, Windows usually doesn't include a local mail server; PHPMailer's integrated SMTP implementation allows email sending on Windows platforms without a local mail server.
*Please* don't be tempted to do it yourself – if you don't use PHPMailer, there are many other excellent libraries that
you should look at before rolling your own. Try [SwiftMailer](https://swiftmailer.symfony.com/)
, [Laminas/Mail](https://docs.laminas.dev/laminas-mail/), [ZetaComponents](https://github.com/zetacomponents/Mail) etc.
## License
This software is distributed under the [LGPL 2.1](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.html) license, along with the [GPL Cooperation Commitment](https://gplcc.github.io/gplcc/). Please read LICENSE for information on the software availability and distribution.
This software is distributed under the [LGPL 2.1](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.html) license, along with the [GPL Cooperation Commitment](https://gplcc.github.io/gplcc/). Please read [LICENSE](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/blob/master/LICENSE) for information on the software availability and distribution.
## Installation & loading
PHPMailer is available on [Packagist](https://packagist.org/packages/phpmailer/phpmailer) (using semantic versioning), and installation via [Composer](https://getcomposer.org) is the recommended way to install PHPMailer. Just add this line to your `composer.json` file:
```json
"phpmailer/phpmailer": "~6.0"
"phpmailer/phpmailer": "^6.2"
```
or run
@ -53,7 +52,8 @@ Note that the `vendor` folder and the `vendor/autoload.php` script are generated
If you want to use the Gmail XOAUTH2 authentication class, you will also need to add a dependency on the `league/oauth2-client` package in your `composer.json`.
Alternatively, if you're not using Composer, copy the contents of the PHPMailer folder into one of the `include_path` directories specified in your PHP configuration and load each class file manually:
Alternatively, if you're not using Composer, you
can [download PHPMailer as a zip file](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/archive/master.zip), (note that docs and examples are not included in the zip file), then copy the contents of the PHPMailer folder into one of the `include_path` directories specified in your PHP configuration and load each class file manually:
If you're not using the `SMTP` class explicitly (you're probably not), you don't need a `use` line for the SMTP class.
If you don't speak git or just want a tarball, click the 'zip' button on the right of the project page in GitHub, though note that docs and examples are not included in the tarball.
If you're not using the `SMTP` class explicitly (you're probably not), you don't need a `use` line for the SMTP class. Even if you're not using exceptions, you do still need to load the `Exception` class as it is used internally.
## Legacy versions
PHPMailer 5.2 (which is compatible with PHP 5.0 - 7.0) is no longer being supported for feature updates, and will only be receiving security updates from now on. You will find the latest version of 5.2 in the [5.2-stable branch](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/5.2-stable), and future versions of 5.2 will be tagged with 5.2.x version numbers, so existing Composer configs should remain working. If you're using PHP 5.5 or later, we recommend you make the necessary changes to switch to the 6.0 release.
PHPMailer 5.2 (which is compatible with PHP 5.0 — 7.0) is no longer supported, even for security updates. You will find the latest version of 5.2 in the [5.2-stable branch](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/5.2-stable). If you're using PHP 5.5 or later (which you should be), switch to the 6.x releases.
The 5.2 branch will not receive security updates after December 31st 2018.
## Upgrading from 5.2
### Upgrading from 5.2
The biggest changes are that source files are now in the `src/` folder, and PHPMailer now declares the namespace `PHPMailer\PHPMailer`. This has several important effects – [read the upgrade guide](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/UPGRADING.md) for more details.
### Minimal installation
While installing the entire package manually or with Composer is simple, convenient and reliable, you may want to include only vital files in your project. At the very least you will need [src/PHPMailer.php](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/src/PHPMailer.php). If you're using SMTP, you'll need [src/SMTP.php](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/src/SMTP.php), and if you're using POP-before SMTP, you'll need [src/POP3.php](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/src/POP3.php). You can skip the [language](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/language/) folder if you're not showing errors to users and can make do with English-only errors. If you're using XOAUTH2 you will need [src/OAuth.php](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/src/OAuth.php) as well as the Composer dependencies for the services you wish to authenticate with. Really, it's much easier to use Composer!
While installing the entire package manually or with Composer is simple, convenient, and reliable, you may want to include only vital files in your project. At the very least you will need [src/PHPMailer.php](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/src/PHPMailer.php). If you're using SMTP, you'll need [src/SMTP.php](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/src/SMTP.php), and if you're using POP-before SMTP (*very* unlikely!), you'll need [src/POP3.php](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/src/POP3.php). You can skip the [language](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/language/) folder if you're not showing errors to users and can make do with English-only errors. If you're using XOAUTH2 you will need [src/OAuth.php](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/src/OAuth.php) as well as the Composer dependencies for the services you wish to authenticate with. Really, it's much easier to use Composer!
## A Simple Example
```php
<?php
//Import PHPMailer classes into the global namespace
//These must be at the top of your script, not inside a function
//Import PHPMailer classes into the global namespace
//These must be at the top of your script, not inside a function
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\SMTP;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\Exception;
//Load Composer's autoloader
//Load Composer's autoloader
require 'vendor/autoload.php';
//Instantiation and passing `true` enables exceptions
//Instantiation and passing `true` enables exceptions
$mail->addAttachment('/tmp/image.jpg', 'new.jpg'); //Optional name
//Content
$mail->isHTML(true); //Set email format to HTML
//Content
$mail->isHTML(true); //Set email format to HTML
$mail->Subject = 'Here is the subject';
$mail->Body = 'This is the HTML message body <b>in bold!</b>';
$mail->AltBody = 'This is the body in plain text for non-HTML mail clients';
@ -131,59 +128,53 @@ try {
}
```
You'll find plenty more to play with in the [examples](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/examples) folder.
You'll find plenty to play with in the [examples](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/examples) folder, which covers many common scenarios including sending through gmail, building contact forms, sending to mailing lists, and more.
If you are re-using the instance (e.g. when sending to a mailing list), you may need to clear the recipient list to avoid sending duplicate messages. See [the mailing list example](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/blob/master/examples/mailing_list.phps) for further guidance.
That's it. You should now be ready to use PHPMailer!
## Localization
PHPMailer defaults to English, but in the [language](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/language/) folder you'll find numerous (48 at the time of writing!) translations for PHPMailer error messages that you may encounter. Their filenames contain [ISO 639-1](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_639-1) language code for the translations, for example `fr` for French. To specify a language, you need to tell PHPMailer which one to use, like this:
PHPMailer defaults to English, but in the [language](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/language/) folder you'll find many translations for PHPMailer error messages that you may encounter. Their filenames contain [ISO 639-1](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_639-1) language code for the translations, for example `fr` for French. To specify a language, you need to tell PHPMailer which one to use, like this:
We welcome corrections and new languages - if you're looking for corrections to do, run the [PHPMailerLangTest.php](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/test/PHPMailerLangTest.php) script in the tests folder and it will show any missing translations.
We welcome corrections and new languages – if you're looking for corrections, run the [PHPMailerLangTest.php](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/test/PHPMailerLangTest.php) script in the tests folder and it will show any missing translations.
## Documentation
Start reading at the [GitHub wiki](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki). If you're having trouble, this should be the first place you look as it's the most frequently updated.
Start reading at the [GitHub wiki](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki). If you're having trouble, head for [the troubleshooting guide](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting) as it's frequently updated.
Examples of how to use PHPMailer for common scenarios can be found in the [examples](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/examples) folder. If you're looking for a good starting point, we recommend you start with [the Gmail example](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/examples/gmail.phps).
Note that in order to reduce PHPMailer's deployed code footprint, the examples are no longer included if you load PHPMailer via Composer or via [GitHub's zip file download](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/archive/master.zip), so you'll need to either clone the git repository or use the above links to get to the examples directly.
To reduce PHPMailer's deployed code footprint, examples are not included if you load PHPMailer via Composer or via [GitHub's zip file download](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/archive/master.zip), so you'll need to either clone the git repository or use the above links to get to the examples directly.
Complete generated API documentation is [available online](http://phpmailer.github.io/PHPMailer/).
Complete generated API documentation is [available online](https://phpmailer.github.io/PHPMailer/).
You can generate complete API-level documentation by running `phpdoc` in the top-level folder, and documentation will appear in the `docs` folder, though you'll need to have [PHPDocumentor](http://www.phpdoc.org) installed. You may find [the unit tests](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/test/phpmailerTest.php) a good source of how to do various operations such as encryption.
You can generate complete API-level documentation by running `phpdoc` in the top-level folder, and documentation will appear in the `docs` folder, though you'll need to have [PHPDocumentor](http://www.phpdoc.org) installed. You may find [the unit tests](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/blob/master/test/PHPMailerTest.php) a good reference for how to do various operations such as encryption.
If the documentation doesn't cover what you need, search the [many questions on Stack Overflow](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/phpmailer), and before you ask a question about "SMTP Error: Could not connect to SMTP host.", [read the troubleshooting guide](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting).
## Tests
There is a PHPUnit test script in the [test](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/test/) folder. PHPMailer uses PHPUnit 4.8 - we would use 5.x but we need to run on PHP 5.5.
[PHPMailer tests](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/test/) use PHPUnit 9, with [a polyfill](https://github.com/Yoast/PHPUnit-Polyfills) to let 9-style tests run on older PHPUnit and PHP versions.
If this isn't passing, is there something you can do to help?
## Security
Please disclose any vulnerabilities found responsibly - report any security problems found to the maintainers privately.
PHPMailer versions prior to 5.2.22 (released January 9th 2017) have a local file disclosure vulnerability, [CVE-2017-5223](https://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2017-5223). If content passed into `msgHTML()` is sourced from unfiltered user input, relative paths can map to absolute local file paths and added as attachments. Also note that `addAttachment` (just like `file_get_contents`, `passthru`, `unlink`, etc) should not be passed user-sourced params either! Reported by Yongxiang Li of Asiasecurity.
Please disclose any vulnerabilities found responsibly – report security issues to the maintainers privately.
PHPMailer versions prior to 5.2.20 (released December 28th 2016) are vulnerable to [CVE-2016-10045](https://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2016-10045) a remote code execution vulnerability, responsibly reported by [Dawid Golunski](https://legalhackers.com/advisories/PHPMailer-Exploit-Remote-Code-Exec-CVE-2016-10045-Vuln-Patch-Bypass.html), and patched by Paul Buonopane (@Zenexer).
PHPMailer versions prior to 5.2.18 (released December 2016) are vulnerable to [CVE-2016-10033](https://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2016-10033) a critical remote code execution vulnerability, responsibly reported by [Dawid Golunski](http://legalhackers.com/advisories/PHPMailer-Exploit-Remote-Code-Exec-CVE-2016-10033-Vuln.html).
See [SECURITY](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/SECURITY.md) for more detail on security issues.
See [SECURITY](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/tree/master/SECURITY.md) and [PHPMailer's security advisories on GitHub](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/security).
## Contributing
Please submit bug reports, suggestions and pull requests to the [GitHub issue tracker](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/issues).
We're particularly interested in fixing edge-cases, expanding test coverage and updating translations.
If you found a mistake in the docs, or want to add something, go ahead and amend the wiki - anyone can edit it.
If you found a mistake in the docs, or want to add something, go ahead and amend the wiki – anyone can edit it.
If you have git clones from prior to the move to the PHPMailer GitHub organisation, you'll need to update any remote URLs referencing the old GitHub location with a command like this from within your clone:
Please *don't* use the SourceForge or Google Code projects any more; they are obsolete and no longer maintained.
## Sponsorship
Development time and resources for PHPMailer are provided by [Smartmessages.net](https://info.smartmessages.net/), a powerful email marketing system.
Development time and resources for PHPMailer are provided by [Smartmessages.net](https://info.smartmessages.net/), the world's only privacy-first email marketing system.
Donations are very welcome, whether in beer 🍺, T-shirts 👕, or cold, hard cash 💰. Sponsorship through GitHub is a simple and convenient way to say "thank you" to PHPMailer's maintainers and contributors – just click the "Sponsor" button [on the project page](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer). If your company uses PHPMailer, consider taking part in Tidelift's enterprise support programme.
Other contributions are gladly received, whether in beer 🍺, T-shirts 👕, Amazon wishlist raids, or cold, hard cash 💰. If you'd like to donate to say "thank you" to maintainers or contributors, please contact them through individual profile pages via [the contributors page](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/graphs/contributors).
The maintainers of PHPMailer and thousands of other packages are working with Tidelift to deliver commercial
support and maintenance for the open source packages you use to build your applications. Save time, reduce risk, and
improve code health, while paying the maintainers of the exact packages you
Please disclose any vulnerabilities found responsibly - report any security problems found to the maintainers privately.
Please disclose any security issues or vulnerabilities found through [Tidelift's coordinated disclosure system](https://tidelift.com/security) or to the maintainers privately.
PHPMailer versions 6.1.5 and earlier contain an output escaping bug that occurs in `Content-Type` and `Content-Disposition` when filenames passed into `addAttachment` and other methods that accept attachment names contain double quote characters, in contravention of RFC822 3.4.1. No specific vulnerability has been found relating to this, but it could allow file attachments to bypass attachment filters that are based on matching filename extensions. Recorded as [CVE-2020-13625](https://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2020-13625). Reported by Elar Lang of Clarified Security.
PHPMailer versions prior to 6.0.6 and 5.2.27 are vulnerable to an object injection attack by passing `phar://` paths into `addAttachment()` and other functions that may receive unfiltered local paths, possibly leading to RCE. Recorded as [CVE-2018-19296](https://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2018-19296). See [this article](https://knasmueller.net/5-answers-about-php-phar-exploitation) for more info on this type of vulnerability. Mitigated by blocking the use of paths containing URL-protocol style prefixes such as `phar://`. Reported by Sehun Oh of cyberone.kr.
Miraty
6 months ago