Scott Hanselman

ASP.NET Identity 2.0 was released last month and it's got a number of significant updates and new features that are worth checking out. For historical context, read the "Introduction to ASP.NET Identity" article that includes a lot of background and information on why certain decisions were made, as well as an  overview of some of the goals of ASP.NET Identity 2.0 like:

• One Identity system for ASP.NET Web Forms, MVC, Web API, and Web Pages
• Total control over user profile schema.
• Pluggable storage mechanisms from Windows Azure Storage Table Service to NoSQL databases
• Unit Testable
• Claims-based Auth adds more choice over simple role membership
• Social Logins (MSFT, FB, Google, Twitter, etc)
• Based on OWIN middleware, ASP.NET Identity has no System.Web dependency

You can watch a video of Pranav Rastogi and I upgrading the ASP.NET Membership systems on an older ASP.NET application to the latest bits. There's also migration docs in detail:

• Migrating an Existing Website from SQL Membership to ASP.NET Identity
• Migrating Universal Provider Data for Membership and User Profiles to ASP.NET Identity

ASP.NET Identity is on CodePlex today (and soon to be open sourced...paperwork) at https://aspnetidentity.codeplex.com/ or access the NuGet feed for nightly builds.

Adding Two-Factor authentication to an ASP.NET application

I recently changed all my accounts online to two-factor auth, and I really recommend you do as well. Here's how to add Two-Factor Auth to an ASP.NET application using Identity 2.0.

You'll have a class that is a UserManager that handles access to users and how they are stored. Inside this manager there's an IIdentityMessageService that you can implement to validate a user with whatever you want, like email, SMS, or a time-based token.

Here's an example SmsService where I'm using Twilio to send text messages. Again, you can do whatever you want in your implementation.

public class SmsService : IIdentityMessageService
{
    public Task SendAsync(IdentityMessage message)
    {
        // Plug in your sms service here to send a text message.
        message.Destination = Keys.ToPhone; //your number here
        var twilio = new TwilioRestClient(Keys.TwilioSid, Keys.TwilioToken);
        var result = twilio.SendMessage(Keys.FromPhone, message.Destination, message.Body);

        return Task.FromResult(0);
    }
}

If I were sending an EmailMessage, I'd do something like this. Note it's just another implementation of the same simple interface:

public class EmailService : IIdentityMessageService
{
    public Task SendAsync(IdentityMessage message)
    {
        string text = message.Body;
        string html = message.Body;
        //do whatever you want to the message        
        MailMessage msg = new MailMessage();
        msg.From = new MailAddress("scott@hanselman.com");
        msg.To.Add(new MailAddress(message.Destination));
        msg.Subject = message.Subject;
        msg.AlternateViews.Add(AlternateView.CreateAlternateViewFromString(text, null, MediaTypeNames.Text.Plain));
        msg.AlternateViews.Add(AlternateView.CreateAlternateViewFromString(html, null, MediaTypeNames.Text.Html));

        SmtpClient smtpClient = new SmtpClient("smtp.whatever.net", Convert.ToInt32(587));
        System.Net.NetworkCredential credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential(Keys.EmailUser, Keys.EMailKey);
        smtpClient.Credentials = credentials;
        smtpClient.Send(msg);

        return Task.FromResult(0);
    }
}

In your IdentityConfig.cs you can register as many TwoFactorProviders as you'd like. I'm adding both Email and Sms here. They include token providers but again, everything is pluggable.

manager.RegisterTwoFactorProvider("PhoneCode", new PhoneNumberTokenProvider<ApplicationUser> {
    MessageFormat = "Your security code is: {0}"
});
manager.RegisterTwoFactorProvider("EmailCode", new EmailTokenProvider<ApplicationUser> {
    Subject = "SecurityCode",
    BodyFormat = "Your security code is {0}"
});

manager.EmailService = new EmailService();
manager.SmsService = new SmsService();

If a user tries to login you need to make sure they are a VerifiedUser. If not, get a valid two factor provider and send them a code to validate. In this case, since there are two providers to choice from, I let them pick from a dropdown. Here's the POST to /Account/SendCode:

public async Task<ActionResult> SendCode(SendCodeViewModel model)
{
    // Generate the token and send it
    if (!ModelState.IsValid)
    {
        return View();
    }

    if (!await SignInHelper.SendTwoFactorCode(model.SelectedProvider))
    {
        return View("Error");
    }
    return RedirectToAction("VerifyCode", new { Provider = model.SelectedProvider, ReturnUrl = model.ReturnUrl });
}

The sender of the two factor code depends on your implementation, of course.

public async Task<bool> SendTwoFactorCode(string provider)
{
    var userId = await GetVerifiedUserIdAsync();
    if (userId == null)
    {
        return false;
    }

    var token = await UserManager.GenerateTwoFactorTokenAsync(userId, provider);
    // See IdentityConfig.cs to plug in Email/SMS services to actually send the code
    await UserManager.NotifyTwoFactorTokenAsync(userId, provider, token);
    return true;
}

When it's time to get the code from them, they need to have logged in with name and password already, and we're now checking the code:

[AllowAnonymous]
public async Task<ActionResult> VerifyCode(string provider, string returnUrl)
{
    // Require that the user has already logged in via username/password or external login
    if (!await SignInHelper.HasBeenVerified())
    {
        return View("Error");
    }
    var user = await UserManager.FindByIdAsync(await SignInHelper.GetVerifiedUserIdAsync());
    return View(new VerifyCodeViewModel { Provider = provider, ReturnUrl = returnUrl });
}

We can sign users potentially a number of ways, like with External Sign Ins (Twitter, etc) but here's the TwoFactorSignIn

public async Task<SignInStatus> TwoFactorSignIn(string provider, string code, bool isPersistent, bool rememberBrowser)
{
    var userId = await GetVerifiedUserIdAsync();
    if (userId == null)
    {
        return SignInStatus.Failure;
    }
    var user = await UserManager.FindByIdAsync(userId);
    if (user == null)
    {
        return SignInStatus.Failure;
    }
    if (await UserManager.IsLockedOutAsync(user.Id))
    {
        return SignInStatus.LockedOut;
    }
    if (await UserManager.VerifyTwoFactorTokenAsync(user.Id, provider, code))
    {
        // When token is verified correctly, clear the access failed count used for lockout
        await UserManager.ResetAccessFailedCountAsync(user.Id);
        await SignInAsync(user, isPersistent, rememberBrowser);
        return SignInStatus.Success;
    }
    // If the token is incorrect, record the failure which also may cause the user to be locked out
    await UserManager.AccessFailedAsync(user.Id);
    return SignInStatus.Failure;
}

If you want this blog post's sample code, make an EMPTY ASP.NET Web Application and run this NuGet command from the Package Manager Console

Install-Package Microsoft.AspNet.Identity.Samples -Pre

Have fun!

Related Links

• Adding ASP.NET Identity to an Empty or Existing Web Forms Project
• Implementing a Custom MySQL ASP.NET Identity Storage Provider
• Create an ASP.NET MVC 5 App with Facebook and Google OAuth2 and OpenID Sign-on
  The tutorial uses the ASP.NET Identity API to add profile information to the user database, and how to authenticate with Google and Facebook.
• Deploy a Secure ASP.NET MVC app with Membership, OAuth, and SQL Database to a Windows Azure Web Site
  This tutorial shows how to use the Identity API to add users and roles.
• Individual User Accounts in Creating ASP.NET Web Projects in Visual Studio 2013
• Organizational Accounts in Creating ASP.NET Web Projects in Visual Studio 2013
• Customizing profile information in ASP.NET Identity in VS 2013 templates
• Get more information from Social providers used in the VS 2013 project templates

* Photo of German Lorenz cipher machine by Timitrius used under CC Attribution 

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About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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