In this web design and programming video tutorial I’ll show you how to make a secure forgotten password script. These scripts are attacked more than mosts and normally are full of security flaws.
I specifically cover how to:
- Strip dangerous code from user input using Regular Expressions
- Enforce secure security questions
- Avoid brute force attacks with CAPTCHA systems
- Create secure encrypted temporary passwords
- Mail new passwords
All of the code used will follow the video. If you have any questions or comments leave them below.
If you have a recommendation for a future tutorial leave that below as well 🙂
Code From the Video
<?php
session_start();
require_once(“./includes/confighamdb.php”);
?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN”
“http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd”>
<html xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml” lang=”en” xml:lang=”en”>
<head>
<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1″ />
<title>Forgot My Password</title>
</head>
<body>
<div id=”main”>
<?php
if (isset($_POST[‘submitted’])) { // Handle the form.
// Check for a valid User ID
if (preg_match (‘%^[A-Za-z0-9]{8,20}$%’, stripslashes(trim($_POST[‘userid’])))) {
$u = escape_data($_POST[‘userid’]);
} else {
$u = FALSE;
echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>1Information Entered is Wrong</font></p>’;
}
// Check for valid Mother name
if (preg_match (‘%^[A-Za-z]{6,25}$%’, stripslashes(trim($_POST[‘mothername’])))) {
$sq = escape_data($_POST[‘mothername’]);
} else {
$sq = FALSE;
echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>2Information Entered is Wrong</font></p>’;
}
// PHP Code for the CAPTCHA System
$captchchk = 1;
require_once(‘./includes/recaptchalib.php’);
$privatekey = “privatekey”;
$resp = recaptcha_check_answer ($privatekey,
$_SERVER[“REMOTE_ADDR”],
$_POST[“recaptcha_challenge_field”],
$_POST[“recaptcha_response_field”]);
if (!$resp->is_valid) {
// What happens when the CAPTCHA was entered incorrectly
echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>The CAPTCHA Code wasn\’t entered correctly!</font></p>’;
$captchchk = 0;
}
if ($u && $sq && $captchchk) {
// Check the account information
$query = “SELECT secques, email, userid FROM users WHERE userid=’$u'”;
$result = mysql_query ($query) or trigger_error(“Security Answer was Wrong”);
if (mysql_affected_rows() == 1) {
$row = mysql_fetch_array ($result, MYSQL_NUM);
mysql_free_result($result);
if($sq == $row[0])
{
$email = $row[1];
$p = substr ( md5(uniqid(rand(),1)), 3, 10);
$query2 = “UPDATE users SET pass=SHA(‘$p’) WHERE userid=’$u'”;
$result2 = mysql_query ($query2) or trigger_error(“Your Password Couldn’t be changed. Try later.”);
if (mysql_affected_rows() == 1) { // If it ran OK.
$body = “Your password has been temporarily changed to ‘$p’. Please log in using this password and your username. At that time you may change your password to something more familiar.”;
mail ($email, ‘Your temporary password.’, $body, ‘From: admin@sitename.com’);
echo ‘<h3>Your password has been changed. You will receive the new, temporary password at the email address with which you registered. Once you have logged in with this password, you may change it by clicking on the “Change Password” link.</h3>’;
mysql_close();
exit();
}
else {
echo “Security Answer was Wrong”;
mysql_close();
exit();
}
} else { // If it did not run OK.
echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>Your password could not be changed due to a system error. We apologize for any inconvenience.</font></p>’;
mysql_close();
exit();
}
} else { // Failed the validation test.
echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>Please try again.</font></p>’;
mysql_close();
exit();
}
}} // End of the main Submit conditional.
?>
<h1>Reset Your Password</h1>
<p>Enter the Following Information Below and your Password will be Reset.</p>
<form action=”forgot_password.php” method=”post”>
<fieldset>
<p><b>Userid:</b> <input type=”text” name=”userid” size=”20″ maxlength=”20″/></p>
<p><b>Mothers or Grandmothers Maiden Name:</b> <input type=”text” name=”mothername” size=”25″ maxlength=”25″/></p>
<?php
require_once(‘./includes/recaptchalib.php’);
$publickey = “publickey”; // you got this from the signup page
echo recaptcha_get_html($publickey);
?>
</fieldset>
<div align=”center”><input type=”submit” name=”submit” value=”Reset My Password” /></div>
<input type=”hidden” name=”submitted” value=”TRUE” />
</form>
</div>
</body>
</html>
