Change Password Script Templates

The Change Password script implements the defined function to change the specified user's password in the external database. We recommend naming this function changePassword.

The script is used only in a legacy authentication scenario and is required if you want to change a user's password in the external database. It will execute when a user performs a password reset workflow, or when a password change workflow is started from the Auth0 Dashboard or the Auth0 Management API.

ChangePassword function

The changePassword function should:

Update the user's password in the external database.
Return true (or a date value) if the password change operation succeeded.
Return false if the password change operation failed.
Return an error if the external database could not be reached.

Definition

The changePassword function accepts three parameters and returns a callback function:

changePassword(email, newPassword, callback): function

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Parameter	Type	Description
`email`	String	User's email address in Auth0 and external database.
`newPassword`	String	Value to be set as user's new password in the external database. This value is sent as plaintext to the function and should be encrypted before being sent to the external database.
`callback`	Function	Used to pass data or operation result data through the pipeline.

Example

This is a pseudo-JavaScript example of how you could implement the changePassword function. For language-specific examples, read Language-specific script examples.

function changePassword(email, newPassword, callback) {
  // Hash the provided password 
  let hashedPassword = hash(newPassword);

  // Prepare the API call
  let options = {
    url: "https://example.com/api/users",
    body: {
      email: email,
      password: hashedPassword
    }
  };

  // Call the API
  send(options, err => {
    if (err && err.id == "FAIL_CHANGE_PASSWORD") {
      // Return false in callback if password change failed
      return callback(null, false);
    } else if (err) {
      // Return error in callback if other error occurred
      return callback(new Error("My custom error message.");
    } else {
      // Return true in callback if password change succeeded
      return callback(null, true);

      // Or return date value in callback if password change succeeded, and last_password_reset profile attribute should be updated.
      return callback(null, Date.now());
    }
  });
}

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Encryption

Avoid logging, storing, or transporting the password credential anywhere in its unencrypted form.

To prevent any potential data leak, encrypt the password value using a cryptographic hash encryption library such as bcrypt.

Example

bcrypt.hash(password, 10, function (err, hash) {
    if (err) {
        return callback(err);
    } else {
        // Return hashed password
    }
});

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Callback function

The callback function accepts two parameters and is used to pass error data or indicate the result of the operation.

Definition

callback(error, operationResult | lastPasswordReset): function

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Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`error`	Object	Required	Contains error data.
`operationResult`	Boolean	Optional	Indicates the result of the change password operation.
`lastPasswordReset`	Date	Optional	Indicates that the change password operation succeeded, and updates the `last_password_reset` attribute on the user's Auth0 profile and clears the user's current session.

Return a success

If the change password operation succeeded, return the callback function, and pass a null value as the error parameter and a true value as the operationResult parameter.

Example

return callback(null, true);

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Return a success and update last_password_reset attribute

If the change password operation succeeded, return the callback function, and pass a null value as the error parameter and a date value as the lastPasswordReset parameter.

Example

return callback(null, Date.now());

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Return a failure

If the change password operation failed, return the callback function, and pass a null value as the error parameter and a false value as the operationResult parameter.

Example

return callback(null, false);

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Return an error

If an error occurs, return callback function, and pass relevant error information as the error parameter.

Example

return callback(new Error("My custom error message."));

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Language-specific script examples

Auth0 provides sample scripts for use with the following languages/technologies:

JavaScript
ASP.NET Membership Provider (MVC3 - Universal Providers)
ASP.NET Membership Provider (MVC4 - Simple Membership)
MongoDB
MySQL
PostgreSQL
SQL Server
Windows Azure SQL Database

JavaScript

function changePassword(email, newPassword, callback) {
  // This script should change the password stored for the current user in your
  // database. It is executed when the user clicks on the confirmation link
  // after a reset password request.
  // The content and behavior of password confirmation emails can be customized
  // here: https://manage.auth0.com/#/emails
  // The `newPassword` parameter of this function is in plain text. It must be
  // hashed/salted to match whatever is stored in your database.
  //
  // There are three ways that this script can finish:
  // 1. The user's password was updated successfully:
  //     callback(null, true);
  // 2. The user's password was not updated:
  //     callback(null, false);
  // 3. Something went wrong while trying to reach your database:
  //     callback(new Error("my error message"));
  //
  // If an error is returned, it will be passed to the query string of the page
  // to which the user is being redirected after clicking the confirmation link.
  // For example, returning `callback(new Error("error"))` and redirecting to
  // https://example.com would redirect to the following URL:
  //     https://example.com?email=alice%40example.com&message=error&success=false
  const msg = 'Please implement the Change Password script for this database ' +
    'connection at https://manage.auth0.com/#/connections/database';
  return callback(new Error(msg));
}

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ASP.NET Membership Provider (MVC3 - Universal Providers)

function changePassword(email, newPassword, callback) {
  var crypto = require('crypto');
  var Connection = require('tedious').Connection;
  var Request = require('tedious').Request;
  var TYPES = require('tedious').TYPES
  var connection = new Connection({
    userName:  'the username',
    password:  'the password',
    server:    'the server',
    options: {
      database:  'the db name',
      // encrypt: true   for Windows Azure enable this
    }
  });
  /**
   * hashPassword
   *
   * This function creates a hashed version of the password to store in the database.
   *
   * @password  {[string]}      the password entered by the user
   * @return    {[string]}      the hashed password
   */
  function hashPassword(password, salt) {
    // the default implementation uses HMACSHA256 and since Key length is 64
    // and default salt is 16 bytes, Membership will fill the buffer repeating the salt
    var key = Buffer.concat([salt, salt, salt, salt]);
    var hmac = crypto.createHmac('sha256', key);
    hmac.update(Buffer.from(password, 'ucs2'));
    var hashed = hmac.digest('base64');
    return hashed;
  }
  connection.on('debug', function(text) {
      // if you have connection issues, uncomment this to get more detailed info
      //console.log(text);
  }).on('errorMessage', function(text) {
      // this will show any errors when connecting to the SQL database or with the SQL statements
    console.log(JSON.stringify(text));
  });
  connection.on('connect', function (err) {
    if (err) {
      return callback(err);
    }
    updateMembershipUser(email, newPassword, function(err, wasUpdated) {
      if (err) {
        return callback(err); // this will return a 500
      }
      callback(null, wasUpdated);
    });
  });
  function updateMembershipUser(email, newPassword, callback) {
    var salt            = crypto.randomBytes(16);
    var hashedPassword  = hashPassword(newPassword, salt);
    var updateMembership =
      'UPDATE Memberships '+
      'SET Password=@NewPassword, PasswordSalt=@NewSalt, LastPasswordChangedDate=GETDATE() '+
      'WHERE Email=@Email';
    var updateMembershipQuery = new Request(updateMembership, function (membershipErr, membershipCount) {
      if (membershipErr) {
        return callback(membershipErr);
      }
      callback(null, membershipCount > 0);
    });
    updateMembershipQuery.addParameter('NewPassword', TYPES.VarChar, hashedPassword);
    updateMembershipQuery.addParameter('NewSalt',     TYPES.VarChar, salt.toString('base64'));
    updateMembershipQuery.addParameter('Email',       TYPES.VarChar, email);
    connection.execSql(updateMembershipQuery);
  }
}

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ASP.NET Membership Provider (MVC4 - Simple Membership)

function changePassword(email, newPassword, callback) {
  var crypto = require('crypto');
  var Connection = require('tedious').Connection;
  var Request = require('tedious').Request;
  var TYPES = require('tedious').TYPES
  var connection = new Connection({
    userName:  'the username',
    password:  'the password',
    server:    'the server',
    options: {
      database:  'the db name',
      // encrypt: true for Windows Azure enable this
    }
  });
  /**
   * hashPassword
   *
   * This function hashes a password using HMAC SHA256 algorithm.
   *
   * @password    {[string]}    password to be hased
   * @salt        {[string]}    salt to be used in the hashing process
   * @callback    {[function]}  callback to be called after hashing the password
   */
  function hashPassword(password, salt, callback) {
    var iterations         = 1000;
    var passwordHashLength = 32;
    crypto.pbkdf2(password, salt, iterations, passwordHashLength, function (err, hashed) {
      if (err) {
        return callback(err);
      }
      var result = Buffer.concat([Buffer.from([0], 1), salt, Buffer.from(hashed, 'binary')]);
      var resultBase64 = result.toString('base64');
      callback(null, resultBase64);
    });
  }
  connection.on('debug', function(text) {
      // if you have connection issues, uncomment this to get more detailed info
      //console.log(text);
  }).on('errorMessage', function(text) {
      // this will show any errors when connecting to the SQL database or with the SQL statements
    console.log(JSON.stringify(text));
  });
  connection.on('connect', function (err) {
    if (err) {
      return callback(err);
    }
    updateMembershipUser(email, newPassword, function(err, wasUpdated) {
      if (err) {
        return callback(err); // this will return a 500
      }
      callback(null, wasUpdated);
    });
  });
  function findUserId(email, callback) {
    var findUserIdFromEmail =
      'SELECT UserProfile.UserId FROM ' +
      'UserProfile INNER JOIN webpages_Membership ' +
      'ON UserProfile.UserId = webpages_Membership.UserId ' +
      'WHERE UserName = @Email';
    var findUserIdFromEmailQuery = new Request(findUserIdFromEmail, function (err, rowCount, rows) {
      if (err) {
        return callback(err);
      }
      // No record found with that email
      if (rowCount < 1) {
        return callback(null, null);
      }
      var userId = rows[0][0].value;
      callback(null, userId);
    });
    findUserIdFromEmailQuery.addParameter('Email', TYPES.VarChar, email);
    connection.execSql(findUserIdFromEmailQuery);
  }
  function updateMembershipUser(email, newPassword, callback) {
    findUserId(email, function (err, userId) {
      if (err) {
        return callback(err);
      }
      if (userId === null) {
        return callback();
      }
      var salt = crypto.randomBytes(16);
      var updateMembership =
        'UPDATE webpages_Membership '+
        'SET Password=@NewPassword, PasswordChangedDate=GETDATE() '+
        'WHERE UserId=@UserId';
      var updateMembershipQuery = new Request(updateMembership, function (err, rowCount) {
        if (err) {
          return callback(err);
        }
        if (rowCount < 1) {
          return callback();
        }
        callback(null, rowCount > 0);
      });
      hashPassword(newPassword, salt, function (err, hashedPassword) {
        if (err) {
          return callback(err);
        }
        updateMembershipQuery.addParameter('NewPassword',   TYPES.VarChar, hashedPassword);
        updateMembershipQuery.addParameter('UserId',        TYPES.VarChar, userId);
        connection.execSql(updateMembershipQuery);
      });
    });
  }
}

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MongoDB

function changePassword(email, newPassword, callback) {
  const bcrypt = require('bcrypt');
  const MongoClient = require('mongodb@3.1.4').MongoClient;
  const client = new MongoClient('mongodb://user:pass@mymongoserver.com');
  client.connect(function (err) {
    if (err) return callback(err);
    const db = client.db('db-name');
    const users = db.collection('users');
    bcrypt.hash(newPassword, 10, function (err, hash) {
      if (err) {
        client.close();
        return callback(err);
      }
      users.update({ email: email }, { $set: { password: hash } }, function (err, count) {
        client.close();
        if (err) return callback(err);
        callback(null, count > 0);
      });
    });
  });
}

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MySQL

function changePassword(email, newPassword, callback) {
  const mysql = require('mysql');
  const bcrypt = require('bcrypt');
  const connection = mysql({
    host: 'localhost',
    user: 'me',
    password: 'secret',
    database: 'mydb'
  });
  connection.connect();
  const query = 'UPDATE users SET password = ? WHERE email = ?';
  bcrypt.hash(newPassword, 10, function(err, hash) {
    if (err) return callback(err);
    connection.query(query, [ hash, email ], function(err, results) {
      if (err) return callback(err);
      callback(null, results.length > 0);
    });
  });
}

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PostgreSQL

function changePassword (email, newPassword, callback) {
  //this example uses the "pg" library
  //more info here: https://github.com/brianc/node-postgres
  const bcrypt = require('bcrypt');
  const postgres = require('pg');
  const conString = 'postgres://user:pass@localhost/mydb';
  postgres.connect(conString, function (err, client, done) {
    if (err) return callback(err);
    bcrypt.hash(newPassword, 10, function (err, hash) {
      if (err) return callback(err);
      const query = 'UPDATE users SET password = $1 WHERE email = $2';
      client.query(query, [hash, email], function (err, result) {
        // NOTE: always call `done()` here to close
        // the connection to the database
        done();
        return callback(err, result && result.rowCount > 0);
      });
    });
  });
}

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SQL Server

function changePassword (email, newPassword, callback) {
  //this example uses the "tedious" library
  //more info here: http://tediousjs.github.io/tedious/
  const bcrypt = require('bcrypt');
  const sqlserver = require('tedious@1.11.0');
  const Connection = sqlserver.Connection;
  const Request = sqlserver.Request;
  const TYPES = sqlserver.TYPES;
  const connection = new Connection({
    userName:  'test',
    password:  'test',
    server:    'localhost',
    options:  {
      database: 'mydb'
    }
  });
  const query = 'UPDATE dbo.Users SET Password = @NewPassword WHERE Email = @Email';
  connection.on('debug', function(text) {
    console.log(text);
  }).on('errorMessage', function(text) {
    console.log(JSON.stringify(text, null, 2));
  }).on('infoMessage', function(text) {
    console.log(JSON.stringify(text, null, 2));
  });
  connection.on('connect', function (err) {
    if (err) return callback(err);
    const request = new Request(query, function (err, rows) {
      if (err) return callback(err);
      callback(null, rows > 0);
    });
    bcrypt.hash(newPassword, 10, function (err, hash) {
      if (err) return callback(err);
      request.addParameter('NewPassword', TYPES.VarChar, hash);
      request.addParameter('Email', TYPES.VarChar, email);
      connection.execSql(request);
    });
  });
}

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Windows Azure SQL Database

function changePassword (email, newPassword, callback) {
  //this example uses the "tedious" library
  //more info here: http://pekim.github.io/tedious/index.html
  var Connection = require('tedious@1.11.0').Connection;
  var Request = require('tedious@1.11.0').Request;
  var TYPES = require('tedious@1.11.0').TYPES;
  var bcrypt = require('bcrypt');
  var connection = new Connection({
    userName:  'your-user@your-server-id.database.windows.net',
    password:  'the-password',
    server:    'your-server-id.database.windows.net',
    options:  {
      database: 'mydb',
      encrypt:  true
    }
  });
  var query = 'UPDATE dbo.Users SET Password = @NewPassword ' +
    'WHERE Email = @Email';
  connection.on('debug', function(text) {
    // Uncomment next line in order to enable debugging messages
    // console.log(text);
  }).on('errorMessage', function(text) {
    console.log(JSON.stringify(text, null, 2));
  }).on('infoMessage', function(text) {
    // Uncomment next line in order to enable information messages
    // console.log(JSON.stringify(text, null, 2));
  });
  connection.on('connect', function (err) {
    if (err) { return callback(err); }
    var request = new Request(query, function (err, rows) {
      if (err) { return callback(err); }
      console.log('rows: ' + rows);
      callback(null, rows > 0);
    });
    bcrypt.hash(newPassword, 10, function (err, hash) {
      if (err) { return callback(err); }
      request.addParameter('NewPassword', TYPES.VarChar, hash);
      request.addParameter('Email', TYPES.VarChar, email);
      connection.execSql(request);
    });
  });
}

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Change Password Script Templates

Authenticate

Change Password Script Templates

ChangePassword function

Definition

Example

Encryption

Example

Callback function

Definition

Return a success

Example

Return a success and update last_password_reset attribute

Example

Return a failure

Example

Return an error

Example

Language-specific script examples

JavaScript

ASP.NET Membership Provider (MVC3 - Universal Providers)

ASP.NET Membership Provider (MVC4 - Simple Membership)

MongoDB

MySQL

PostgreSQL

SQL Server

Windows Azure SQL Database

Learn more

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