What are the potential pitfalls of automatically generating and sending passwords via email in PHP?

Automatically generating and sending passwords via email in PHP can pose a security risk if the email is intercepted or the recipient's email account is compromised. To mitigate this risk, it is recommended to provide a secure mechanism for users to reset their passwords, such as using a password reset link with a time-limited token. 

// Generate a random token for password reset
$token = bin2hex(random_bytes(16));

// Store the token in the database along with the user's email and expiration time
// Send the password reset link to the user's email
$email = $user['email'];
$resetLink = "https://example.com/reset_password.php?token=$token";
$message = "Click the following link to reset your password: $resetLink";
mail($email, "Password Reset Link", $message);

Keywords

security password generation email sending plaintext encryption

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