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    Umbraco Security Settings

    Password settings

    The settings for Umbraco passwords are handled by default through the ASP.NET Membership Providers. There are two Membership Providers in the web.config file. One for Umbraco Members and one for Users.

    Users in Umbraco are managed with ASP.NET Identity but in order to maintain backwards compatibility the password settings are still applied at the membership provider level which are carried over into ASP.NET Identity.

    <membership defaultProvider="UmbracoMembershipProvider" userIsOnlineTimeWindow="15">
      <providers>
        <clear />
    
        <!-- Used for members in the Member section of Umbraco -->
        <add name="UmbracoMembershipProvider"
            type="Umbraco.Web.Security.Providers.MembersMembershipProvider, Umbraco.Web"
            minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="0"
            minRequiredPasswordLength="10"
            useLegacyEncoding="false"
            enablePasswordRetrieval="false"
            enablePasswordReset="false"
            requiresQuestionAndAnswer="false"
            defaultMemberTypeAlias="Member"
            passwordFormat="Hashed"
            allowManuallyChangingPassword="false"
            maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="50"/>
    
        <!-- Used for users who have permission to log into Umbraco's backoffice, listed in the Users section of Umbraco -->
        <add name="UsersMembershipProvider"
            type="Umbraco.Web.Security.Providers.UsersMembershipProvider, Umbraco.Web"
            enablePasswordRetrieval="false"
            enablePasswordReset="true"
            requiresQuestionAndAnswer="false"
            allowManuallyChangingPassword="false"
            maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="100"/>
    
      </providers>
    </membership>
    

    For both of these Membership Providers you can specify the following settings (if the attribute is not specified in the web.config the default value is used):

    • minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters (default 0): The number of minimal non-alphanumeric characters that are required for a password
    • minRequiredPasswordLength (default 10): The minimal length of a password
    • useLegacyEncoding (default 'false'): Projects that have been upgraded from a pre Umbraco v7.6 version will have this setting set to 'true' as an older password encoding mechanism was used. This setting should not be used for new projects.
    • passwordFormat (default 'Hashed', possible options 'Clear', 'Encrypted', 'Hashed'): You can specify the way a password should be stored in the database. The options ‘clear’ and ‘encrypted’ should not be used.
    • enablePasswordReset (default 'true'): Indicates whether the membership provider supports password reset for users
    • enablePasswordRetrieval (default 'false'): This setting is not used
    • requiresQuestionAndAnswer (default 'true'): This setting is not used
    • allowManuallyChangingPassword (default 'false'): Must be set to 'true' if you want to change passwords from code (e.g. calling the MemberService.SavePassword()-function)
    • maxInvalidPasswordAttempts (default 5): The number of attempts before a user or member is locked out
    • passwordAttemptWindow (default: 10 (minutes)): The number of minutes allowed before the membership user is locked out
    • passwordStrengthRegularExpression You could specify a regular expression for a password
    • requiresUniqueEmail (default 'true'): You could specify that a unique e-mail address for each user name is required

    Password reset settings

    Umbraco backend users can reset their own password, or if they try too much, have a locked out account.

    To deactivate the User password reset look at the Umbraco Settings Security section.

    To configure password reset verify the Backoffice Login Password Reset section.

    Other security settings