Membership.RequiresQuestionAndAnswer Property

Gets a value indicating whether the default membership provider requires the user to answer a password question for password reset and retrieval.

Namespace: System.Web.Security
Assembly: System.Web (in system.web.dll)

'Declaration
Public Shared ReadOnly Property RequiresQuestionAndAnswer As Boolean
'Usage
Dim value As Boolean

value = Membership.RequiresQuestionAndAnswer

/** @property */
public static boolean get_RequiresQuestionAndAnswer ()

public static function get RequiresQuestionAndAnswer () : boolean

Not applicable.

Property Value

true if a password answer is required for password reset and retrieval; otherwise, false.

Requiring a password question and answer provides an additional layer of security when retrieving or resetting a user's password. Users can supply a question and answer when their user name is created that they can later use to retrieve or reset a forgotten password.

RequiresQuestionAndAnswer is checked when ResetPassword or GetPassword is called. The provider provided with the .NET Framework throws a NotSupportedException if RequiresQuestionAndAnswer is true and the supplied password answer is a null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic).

If EnablePasswordReset and EnablePasswordRetrieval are both false, RequiresQuestionAndAnswer can still be used to enforce the creation of questions and answers when new users are created; however, the question and answer will not be used. You will be able to retrieve the question by using the MembershipUser class.

For more information, see ResetPassword and GetPassword.

The following code example shows the membership Element (ASP.NET Settings Schema) element in the system.web section of the Web.config file for an ASP.NET application. It specifies that the application use an instance of the SqlMembershipProvider, enables password reset, and requires a password answer when performing a reset.

<membership defaultProvider="SqlProvider" userIsOnlineTimeWindow="20">
  <providers>
    <add name="SqlProvider"
      type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider"
      connectionStringName="SqlServices"
      enablePasswordRetrieval="false"
      enablePasswordReset="true"
      requiresQuestionAndAnswer="true"
      passwordFormat="Hashed"
      applicationName="MyApplication" />
  </providers>
</membership>

The following code sample checks the value of RequiresQuestionAndAnswer and adds the necessary controls for a password question and answer to be supplied when creating a user.

Security noteSecurity Note:

This example includes a text box that accepts user input, which is a potential security threat. By default, ASP.NET Web pages validate that user input does not include script or HTML elements. For more information, see Script Exploits Overview (Visual Studio).

<%@ Page Language="VB" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Web.Security" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<script runat="server">

Public Sub CreateUser_OnClick(sender As Object, args As EventArgs)

  ' Create new user and retrieve create status result.

  Dim status As MembershipCreateStatus
  Dim passwordQuestion As String = ""
  Dim passwordAnswer As String = ""

  If Membership.RequiresQuestionAndAnswer Then
    passwordQuestion = PasswordQuestionTextbox.Text
    passwordAnswer = PasswordAnswerTextbox.Text
  End If

  Try
    Dim newUser As MembershipUser = Membership.CreateUser(UsernameTextbox.Text, PasswordTextbox.Text, _
                                                   EmailTextbox.Text, passwordQuestion, _
                                                   passwordAnswer, True, status)
    If newUser Is Nothing Then
      Msg.Text = GetErrorMessage(status)
    Else
       Response.Redirect("login.aspx")
    End If
  Catch
    Msg.Text = "An exception occurred creating the user."
  End Try

End Sub

Public Function GetErrorMessage(status As MembershipCreateStatus) As String

   Select Case status
   
      Case MembershipCreateStatus.DuplicateUserName:
        Return "Username already exists. Please enter a different user name."

      Case MembershipCreateStatus.DuplicateEmail:
        Return "A username for that e-mail address already exists. Please enter a different e-mail address."

      Case MembershipCreateStatus.InvalidPassword:
        Return "The password provided is invalid. Please enter a valid password value."

      Case MembershipCreateStatus.InvalidEmail:
        Return "The e-mail address provided is invalid. Please check the value and try again."

      Case MembershipCreateStatus.InvalidAnswer:
        Return "The password retrieval answer provided is invalid. Please check the value and try again."

      Case MembershipCreateStatus.InvalidQuestion:
        Return "The password retrieval question provided is invalid. Please check the value and try again."

      Case MembershipCreateStatus.InvalidUserName
        Return "The user name provided is invalid. Please check the value and try again."

      Case MembershipCreateStatus.ProviderError:
        Return "The authentication provider returned an error. Please verify your entry and try again. If the problem persists, please contact your system administrator."

      Case MembershipCreateStatus.UserRejected:
        Return "The user creation request has been canceled. Please verify your entry and try again. If the problem persists, please contact your system administrator."

      Case Else:
        Return "An unknown error occurred. Please verify your entry and try again. If the problem persists, please contact your system administrator."
   End Select

End Function

</script>

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head>
<title>Create User</title>
</head>
<body>

<form id="form1" runat="server">
  <h3>Create New User</h3>
  <asp:Label id="Msg" ForeColor="maroon" runat="server" />
  <table cellpadding="3" border="0">
    <tr>
      <td>Username:</td>
      <td><asp:Textbox id="UsernameTextbox" runat="server" /></td>
      <td><asp:RequiredFieldValidator id="UsernameRequiredValidator" runat="server"
                                      ControlToValidate="UserNameTextbox" ForeColor="red"
                                      Display="Static" ErrorMessage="Required" /></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Password:</td>
      <td><asp:Textbox id="PasswordTextbox" runat="server" TextMode="Password" /></td>
      <td><asp:RequiredFieldValidator id="PasswordRequiredValidator" runat="server"
                                      ControlToValidate="PasswordTextbox" ForeColor="red"
                                      Display="Static" ErrorMessage="Required" /></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Confirm Password:</td>
      <td><asp:Textbox id="PasswordConfirmTextbox" runat="server" TextMode="Password" /></td>
      <td><asp:RequiredFieldValidator id="PasswordConfirmRequiredValidator" runat="server"
                                      ControlToValidate="PasswordConfirmTextbox" ForeColor="red"
                                      Display="Static" ErrorMessage="Required" />
          <asp:CompareValidator id="PasswordConfirmCompareValidator" runat="server"
                                      ControlToValidate="PasswordConfirmTextbox" ForeColor="red"
                                      Display="Static" ControlToCompare="PasswordTextBox"
                                      ErrorMessage="Confirm password must match password." />
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Email Address:</td>
      <td><asp:Textbox id="EmailTextbox" runat="server" /></td>
      <td><asp:RequiredFieldValidator id="EmailRequiredValidator" runat="server"
                                      ControlToValidate="EmailTextbox" ForeColor="red"
                                      Display="Static" ErrorMessage="Required" /></td>
    </tr>


<% If Membership.RequiresQuestionAndAnswer Then %>

    <tr>
      <td>Password Question:</td>
      <td><asp:Textbox id="PasswordQuestionTextbox" runat="server" /></td>
      <td><asp:RequiredFieldValidator id="PasswordQuestionRequiredValidator" runat="server"
                                      ControlToValidate="PasswordQuestionTextbox" ForeColor="red"
                                      Display="Static" ErrorMessage="Required" /></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Password Answer:</td>
      <td><asp:Textbox id="PasswordAnswerTextbox" runat="server" /></td>
      <td><asp:RequiredFieldValidator id="PasswordAnswerRequiredValidator" runat="server"
                                      ControlToValidate="PasswordAnswerTextbox" ForeColor="red"
                                      Display="Static" ErrorMessage="Required" /></td>
    </tr>

<% End If %>


    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td><asp:Button id="CreateUserButton" Text="Create User" OnClick="CreateUser_OnClick" runat="server" /></td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</form>

</body>
</html>

Windows 98, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Starter Edition

The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 is supported on Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows XP SP2, and Windows Server 2003 SP1.

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.0, 2.0

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