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type: reference
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# Sign-up restrictions

By implementing sign-up restrictions, you can blacklist or whitelist email addresses
belonging to specific domains.

>**Note**: These restrictions are only applied during sign-up. An admin is
able to add a user through the admin panel with a disallowed domain. Also
note that the users can change their email addresses after signup to
disallowed domains.

## Whitelist email domains

> [Introduced][ce-598] in GitLab 7.11.0

You can restrict users to only signup using email addresses matching the given
domains list.

## Blacklist email domains

> [Introduced][ce-5259] in GitLab 8.10.

With this feature enabled, you can block email addresses of a specific domain
from creating an account on your GitLab server. This is particularly useful to prevent spam. Disposable email addresses are usually used by malicious users to create dummy accounts and spam issues.

## Settings

To access this feature:

1. Navigate to the **Settings > General** in the Admin area.
1. Expand the **Sign-up restrictions** section.

For the:

- Blacklist, you can enter the list manually, or upload a `.txt` file with it. 
- Whitelist you must enter the list manually.

Both the whitelist and blacklist accept wildcards. For example, you can use
`*.company.com` to accept every `company.com` subdomain, or `*.io` to block all
domains ending in `.io`. Domains should be separated by a whitespace,
semicolon, comma, or a new line.

![Domain Blacklist](img/domain_blacklist.png)

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[ce-5259]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/merge_requests/5259
[ce-598]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/merge_requests/598