Here is my approach. In MVC you will have an action called RetrievePassword where you will ask for the user's email address and pass it in a post
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult RetrievePassword()
{
return View();
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult RetrievePassword(PasswordRetrievalModel model)
{
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
string username = Membership.GetUserNameByEmail(model.Email);
if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(username))
{
// This is a helper function that sends an email with a token (an MD5).
NotificationsHelper.SendPasswordRetrieval(model.Email, this.ControllerContext);
}
else
{
Trace.WriteLine(String.Format("*** WARNING: A user tried to retrieve their password but the email address used '{0}' does not exist in the database.", model.Email));
}
return RedirectToAction("Index", "Home");
}
return View(model);
}
An email message will be sent with a url that redirects to http://example.com/Account/Validate?email=xxxxxxxx&token=xxxxxxxx
If the token is valid for the email, you will probably display a password reset form so they choose a new password.
So you need a Validate Action:
[HttpGet]
[CompressFilter]
public ActionResult Validate(string email, string token)
{
bool isValid = false;
if (AccountHelper.IsTokenValid(token, email))
{
string username = Membership.GetUserNameByEmail(email);
if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(username))
{
// Get the user and approve it.
MembershipUser user = Membership.GetUser(username);
user.IsApproved = true;
Membership.UpdateUser(user);
isValid = true;
// Since it was a successful validation, authenticate the user.
FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie(username, false);
}
else
{
isValid = false;
}
}
return View(isValid);
}
Here are some of the helpers you see in this code:
Account Helper
/// <summary>
/// Gets the token for invitation.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="email">The email.</param>
/// <returns></returns>
public static string GetTokenForInvitation(string email)
{
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(email))
throw new ArgumentException("The email cannot be null");
string token = Password.EncodeMessageWithPassword(String.Format("{0}#{1}", email, DateTime.Now), SEED);
return token;
}
/// <summary>
/// Gets the email from token.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="token">The token.</param>
/// <param name="email">The email.</param>
/// <returns></returns>
public static bool GetEmailFromToken(string token, out string email)
{
email = String.Empty;
string message = Password.DecodeMessageWithPassword(token, SEED);
string[] messageParts = message.Split('#');
if (messageParts.Count() != 2)
{
return false;
// the token was not generated correctly.
}
else
{
email = messageParts[0];
return true;
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Helper function used to generate a token to be used in the message sent to users when registered the first time to confirm their email address.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="email">The email address to encode.</param>
/// <returns>The token generated from the email address, timestamp, and SEED value.</returns>
public static string GetTokenForValidation(string email)
{
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(email))
throw new ArgumentException("The email cannot be null");
string token = Password.EncodeMessageWithPassword(String.Format("{0}#{1}", email, DateTime.Now), SEED);
return token;
}
/// <summary>
/// Validates whether a given token is valid for a determined email address.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="token">The token to validate.</param>
/// <param name="email">The email address to use in the validation.</param>
/// <returns><c>true</c> if the token is valid, <c>false</c> otherwise.</returns>
public static bool IsTokenValid(string token, string email)
{
return IsTokenValid(token, email, DateTime.Now);
}
/// <summary>
/// Core method to validate a token that also offers a timestamp for testing. In production mode should always be DateTime.Now.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="token">The token to validate.</param>
/// <param name="email">the email address to use in the validation.</param>
/// <param name="timestamp">The timestamp representing the time in which the validation is performed.</param>
/// <returns><c>true</c> if the token is valid, <c>false</c> otherwise.</returns>
public static bool IsTokenValid(string token, string email, DateTime timestamp)
{
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(token))
throw new ArgumentException("The token cannot be null");
try
{
string message = Password.DecodeMessageWithPassword(token, SEED);
string[] messageParts = message.Split('#');
if (messageParts.Count() != 2)
{
return false;
// the token was not generated correctly.
}
else
{
string messageEmail = messageParts[0];
string messageDate = messageParts[1];
// If the emails are the same and the date in which the token was created is no longer than 5 days, then it is valid. Otherwise, it is not.
return (String.Compare(email, messageEmail, true) == 0 && timestamp.Subtract(DateTime.Parse(messageDate)).Days < 5);
}
}
catch (Exception)
{
// could not decrypt the message. The token has been tampered with.
return false;
}
}
And Finally here some code to encrypt, decript a token...
I have it in a Password class that is intended to be a helper.
/// EDIT:
Removed the two functions I referenced before and show the full helper class.
Here is the Password static class with all helper functions.
using System;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System.Data;
using System.Resources;
namespace MySolution.Common.Util
{
/// <summary>
/// Implements some functions to support password manipulation or generation
/// </summary>
public class Password
{
/// <summary>
/// Takes a string and generates a hash value of 16 bytes.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="str">The string to be hashed</param>
/// <param name="passwordFormat">Selects the hashing algorithm used. Accepted values are "sha1" and "md5".</param>
/// <returns>A hex string of the hashed password.</returns>
public static string EncodeString(string str, string passwordFormat)
{
if (str == null)
return null;
ASCIIEncoding AE = new ASCIIEncoding();
byte[] result;
switch (passwordFormat)
{
case "sha1":
SHA1 sha1 = new System.Security.Cryptography.SHA1CryptoServiceProvider();
result = sha1.ComputeHash(AE.GetBytes(str));
break;
case "md5":
MD5 md5 = new System.Security.Cryptography.MD5CryptoServiceProvider();
result = md5.ComputeHash(AE.GetBytes(str));
break;
default:
throw new ArgumentException("Invalid format value. Accepted values are 'sha1' and 'md5'.", "passwordFormat");
}
// Loop through each byte of the hashed data
// and format each one as a hexadecimal string.
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(16);
for (int i = 0; i < result.Length; i++)
{
sb.Append(result[i].ToString("x2"));
}
return sb.ToString();
}
/// <summary>
/// Takes a string and generates a hash value of 16 bytes. Uses "md5" by default.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="str">The string to be hashed</param>
/// <returns>A hex string of the hashed password.</returns>
public static string EncodeString(string str)
{
return EncodeString(str, "md5");
}
/// <summary>
/// Takes a string and generates a hash value of 16 bytes.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="str">The string to be hashed</param>
/// <param name="passwordFormat">Selects the hashing algorithm used. Accepted values are "sha1" and "md5".</param>
/// <returns>A string of the hashed password.</returns>
public static string EncodeBinary(byte[] buffer, string passwordFormat)
{
if (buffer == null)
return null;
byte[] result;
switch (passwordFormat)
{
case "sha1":
SHA1 sha1 = new System.Security.Cryptography.SHA1CryptoServiceProvider();
result = sha1.ComputeHash(buffer);
break;
case "md5":
MD5 md5 = new System.Security.Cryptography.MD5CryptoServiceProvider();
result = md5.ComputeHash(buffer);
break;
default:
throw new ArgumentException("Invalid format value. Accepted values are 'sha1' and 'md5'.", "passwordFormat");
}
// Loop through each byte of the hashed data
// and format each one as a hexadecimal string.
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(16);
for (int i = 0; i < result.Length; i++)
{
sb.Append(result[i].ToString("x2"));
}
return sb.ToString();
}
/// <summary>
/// Encodes the buffer using the default cryptographic provider.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="buffer">The buffer.</param>
/// <returns></returns>
public static string EncodeBinary(byte[] buffer)
{
return EncodeBinary(buffer, "md5");
}
/// <summary>
/// Creates a random alphanumeric password.
/// </summary>
/// <returns>A default length character string with the new password.</returns>
/// <remarks>The default length of the password is eight (8) characters.</remarks&g
