As discussed in the article Asp.Net Membership Provider Password Administration,
it is possible to retrieve Clear or Encrypted passwords if the
MembershipProvider.EnablePasswordRetrieval property is set to true. If the SqlMembershipProvider's
passwordFormat property is set to Hashed, however, the
provider will not allow you to set the MembershipProvider.EnablePasswordRetrieval
property to true.
Since the ChangePassword and Change Question and Answer panels attempt to retrieve
the existing password to perform their respective calls into the Membership Provider,
you may encounter a message similar to that displayed below if you to not have the
Membership Provider's EnablePasswordReset property set to true in web.config.
Set MembershipProvider.EnablePasswordRetrieval to true when using non-hashed passwords
When using unhashed
passwords, you may set the MembershipProvider.EnablePasswordRetrieval
property to true. This enables calls to the SqlMembership provider's GetPassword
method.
Similarly, the Change Question and Answer panel makes use of the provider's
GetPassword method to retrieve the password then use that password to call the Membership.Provider.ChangePasswordQuestionAndAnswer.
If EnablePasswordRetrieval is set to false in web.config, then the Change Question
and Answer panel will not work. The solution, however, is suggested
right in the error message:
Provider not configured for PasswordRetrieval. Try Change Password, advanced.
The suggestion is to try using the "advanced" option on the Change Password
panel. The advanced link actually loads the Membership Provider's
Reset Password panel which allows for changing the Question and Answer
along with setting a new password.
Related Topics
The Membership Manager Control
Membership Manager Configuration
Asp.Net SqlMembershipProvider Settings