Changing the Forgot Password Option from a Question and Answer to an Email Option

We often hear about high-level security breaches where hundreds of thousands of user and company information has been hacked and stolen. Most of the time, this only leads to finger-pointing and more paperwork than anyone has the time to chase down. We know that Extranet Collaboration Manager (ExCM) is just one part of your companies’ best practices for securing your external collaboration and maintaining a secure company and employee environment. We also know that sometimes the small things a company does can make the biggest difference when it comes to security and manpower.

Case in point, many businesses utilize the well-known question and answer method when a user forgets their password. We have all seen and used this method. The normal scenario is where you have set up two to three security questions when you sign up for your account, and in the event that you forget your password, you have to answer one of these questions to proceed with the password change or the account recovery process.

But how secure are the questions and answers? How easy is it for someone to use the internet and social media to hunt down the answers to any one of the questions? Think about it: would it be that hard to find out your mom’s maiden name, your high school mascot or what city you were born in? While it is true that the questions that are being asked could be much more difficult, remember these businesses are dealing with users who on average have over 100 passwords when you add all their work, financial and personal accounts together. The average company does not have the resources to help customers who have forgotten their passwords much less the security question answers that were initially set up to be easy.

*More information on password and security statistics can be found here.

https://www.varonis.com/blog/cybersecurity-statistics/

So, where does this leave the businesses of today? What other alternatives or tools do they have at their disposal to maintain security and make the retrieval of passwords or the resetting of passwords seamless and still self-service?

What if, instead of the question and answer retrieval process, your company utilized something simpler that most of your customers already use, like their email address? How could this make things easier for the user and your company? We know that most people have at least one email account that is unique. We know that, in most cases, he or she is the only user of that unique email address. Then it would make sense that if we sent the user a link to their email address with options for changing or recovering their password, it should help in that they would not have to remember the questions and answers and the business would not have to store and maintain this information. The user’s security and self-service rest in their ability to remember their email information.

So, your next question might be: “How do I make the password email recovery option possible in ExCM?”

When using ExCM you can disable the extranet user password question and turn on the email option by making the changes below to the web app web.config file:

1.   In the <membership /> section of the web.congif file, the <add /> tag must have the requriesQuestionAndAnswer attribute set from ‘True’ to 'False'.

2.   In the <extranet /> section of the web.config file, the <membershipSettings /> tag must have the passwordResetTemplate attribute set from “SetNewPassword” to "EmailGeneratedPassword".

After making these changes to the web.config file, this should remove the password security question from the registration and add extranet users’ pages. This only needs to be applied to the web.cofig file of your content site.

Below you will find the expected changes that users will experience, once the password reset has been changed from the question and answer to the email setting.

After the user clicks the “Forgot your password?” link the “Reset My Password” page will ask for the user’s email address, then they will need to click Next.

Once the system has confirmed the user’s “Username” they will click Finish.

The next screen will confirm that the “Password Changed Successfully”.

Next, the user will receive an automated email with a temporary password.

Next, the user can return to the “Password Changed Successfully” page and then click “Continue to login”.

At the Sign In page the user will need to use the new temporary password from your email and click Sign In.

NOTE: The temporary password is case and character sensitive and can be copied and pasted.

Once the user is signed in, they will need to select the drop-down button next to the username, and then select “Change My Password”.

Within the “Change My Password” page the user will need to use the temporary password, then create a new password using the green strength bar as a gauge for a secure password. Next, the user will need to confirm the new password, and then click Finish. At this point the user will stay logged in and will use the newly created password the next time they log in.

©2019 PremierPoint Solutions. All Rights Reserved. 

Example Powershell to Automatically Update SharePoint Managed Navigation in Team Sites “associated” to a central Publishing Site

This set of Powershell commands goes along with a demonstration I do at various SharePoint conferences during my presentation titled “Making the Most of SharePoint Managed Metadata”.
In the demo, I show how you can achieve something similar to the global navigation experience that SharePoint Online now offers using Hub sites and associated Team Sites (see this blog post for what that is all about), but by using the traditional SharePoint Publishing Site template along with traditional Team Site templates.  This can be done in SharePoint Server 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 and SharePoint Online.

In my demo, I show how to create a new Team Site and then “associate” it with the main Publishing site by inheriting (actually, the official terminology is “Pin Term with Children”) its Managed Metadata-based Global Navigation.

The only catch with this is that after the new Team Site is created and its Global Navigation “associated” with the central Publishing site, the Global Navigation in any existing Team Sites does not get automatically updated.  So, in my demo I run some SharePoint Powershell as the last step that will loop through all of the “associated” Team Sites and update their Managed Navigation settings to include the new Team Site.

This Powershell is very specific to my demonstration and only provided here as a resource for someone wanting to do something similar.  To use it, you would need to read through it and make an effort to think about what it is doing.  Then, you would need to figure out how you could adapt it to work in your specific scenario and\or environment.

Also, this Powershell will only work with on-premises SharePoint Server.  If you need for it to work with SharePoint Online, you would have to take the concepts and come up with your own SharePoint Online version.

Example from my “Making the Most of SharePoint Managed Metadata” demo:

       

Add-PSSnapin "Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell" –ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

#Set variables

#The name of the Term Store in the local SharePoint Farm
$termStoreName = "Managed Metadata Service"

#The name of the Global Term Group that is used in the central Publishing Site
$globalTermGroupName = "Navigation"
#The name of the Global Term Set that is used in the Global Term Group
$globalTermSetName = "Intranet Global Navigation"

#Get the list of site collections that are attached to the central Publishing site collection
#In this demo, I have a list named "IntranetAttachedSites" that has an item for each Team site collection that is to be "associated"
$requestPortalWeb = Get-SPWeb http://intranet/sites/requests
$list = $requestPortalWeb.Lists["IntranetAttachedSites"]
$listItems = $list.GetItems()


#Update the navigation for each attached site collection
foreach ($listItem in $listItems) 
{
    $localTermGroupName = $listItem["Term Group Name"]
    $localTermSetName = $listItem["Term Set Name"]

    $web= Get-SPWeb $listItem["Title"]
    $site = $web.Site
    $navSettings = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Navigation.WebNavigationSettings($web)
    $taxSession = Get-SPTaxonomySession -Site $site
    $termStore = $taxSession.TermStores[$termStoreName]

    $globalTermGroup = $termStore.Groups[$globalTermGroupName]
    $globalTermSet = $globalTermGroup.TermSets[$globalTermSetName]

    $localTermGroup = $termStore.Groups[$localTermGroupName]
    $localTermSet = $localTermGroup.TermSets[$localTermSetName]

    # remove all the existing terms from the local Term Set
    $localTermSet.Terms|ForEach-Object{$_.delete()}
    $termStore.CommitAll()

    # pin the terms to the local term set from the master term set
    $globalTermSet.Terms|ForEach-Object{
       $t = $localTermSet.ReuseTermWithPinning($_)
    }

    # copy the sort order from the master term set
    $localTermSet.CustomSortOrder = $globalTermSet.CustomSortOrder 
    $termStore.CommitAll()
}

       
 

Making the Most of SharePoint Managed Metadata – Managed Navigation Demo

Over the past couple of years (2018 and 2019), I have been making a presentation at several SharePoint conferences titled “Making the Most of SharePoint Managed Metadata”.  In the presentation, I do several demonstrations that show how to use some of the advanced features of the Managed Metadata Term Store to help your business users get more value.  In this blog post, I am providing the “backup” slides I have on hand for one of the demos in case something goes wrong with the live demo – such as loss of Internet connectivity!

Anyway, here are my “backup” slides for my Managed Navigation demo that essentially document what I show the crowd in the live demo. 

In this demo, I show how you can achieve something similar to the global navigation experience that SharePoint Online now offers using Hub sites and associated Team Sites (see this blog post for what that is all about), but by using the traditional SharePoint Publishing Site template along with traditional Team Site templates.  This can be done in SharePoint Server 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 and SharePoint Online.

In my demo, I show how to create a new Team Site and then “associate” it (actually, the official terminology is “Pin Term with Children”) with the main Publishing site by inheriting its Managed Metadata-based Global Navigation.

How To Answer The Five W's When Using ExCM's Auditing Tools

If you are a SharePoint Administrator managing your internal and external users you are probably asked one, or more of the Five W’s on a regular basis.

Who invited Who?

What security group was the new user added to?

When was the last time the user logged in?

Where in the country is the new user located?

Why is the new user not approved for access?

All of our example questions can be answered if you have the right auditing capabilities in place to access the information.

ExCM provides your company with the necessary auditing tools so that you can keep track of extranet users, extranet roles, invitations, registrations, and Site Sponsors activities. Below you will find a quick guide to help you manage this information using ExCM.

These features can be accessed by selecting the Settings icon, then select Site Settings.

Under Extranet Management, you have several auditing options: Extranet Users, Extranet Roles, Invitations, Registrations and Site Sponsors.

Extranet Users

When selecting Extranet Users, you can view information about the user's e-mail address, the date the user was created, last login date, activity date for that user, date the user was locked, date the user changed their password, and if the user has been approved or unlocked by the green or red indicator.

Extranet Roles

To view the users within a Role, first select Extranet Roles, then select the Role you would like information about. Select the Roles tab in the top ribbon then select View Users in Role.

You can view information about, the user's e-mail address, the date the user was created, last login date, activity date for that user, date the user was last locked, date the user changed their password, and if the user has been approved or unlocked by the green or red indicator.

Invitations

When selecting Invitations, you can view the invitee’s email, the user that sent the invitation, the sent date, the expiration date, and the security definitions selected for the invited user.

To view more information on an invitation select an invite, select the Invitations tab from the top ribbon, then select View Invitation.

This view gives you a detailed view of the user invitation:

Registrations 

When selecting Registrations you can view the register’s login name, email address, registration status, registration date, the registered user’s security definitions, and the approval status.

For more registration information, select the user then the Registrations tab from the top ribbon, and View Registration.

This gives you a detailed view of the user registration:

Site Sponsors

When selecting Site Sponsor, you can view the Site Sponsors, any expiration dates for a Site Sponsor, the Associative Security Definitions, and the Administrative Security Definitions that each Site Sponsor has been granted.

ExCM’s auditing capabilities give an Administrator a wide range of tools so that they can adequately maintain real-time information on users and keep access records up to date for an ever-changing workplace and extranet environment. 

©2019 PremierPoint Solutions. All Rights Reserved. 

How and Why to use an Account Name or an Email Address as a Username when using ExCM

Extranet Collaboration Manager (ExCM) is used by many organizations as a tool to provide the best extranet security possible when collaborating with suppliers and clients. Because of this, we are frequently asked by our customers if they should use a unique username or an email address as the username, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of doing this? Below you will find some of the most common pros and cons for using an email for a username verse using a unique user supplied username.

Emails vs Usernames

Pros

·        Emails by design are unique like a username

·        Emails in many cases are easy to remember

·        When setting up a new account you can bypass having to ask for the email               address if it is also the username

Cons

·        People do sometimes change their email addresses

·        Email addresses can be exposed publicly

·        In some rare cases, people share an email address and would need separate             usernames

·        When using a mobile device typing a username can be easier depending on the         number of characters being used

So, you have weighed the pros and cons and have decided that your organization would be better served by using a user-supplied username instead of an email address, but now you need to know how to change the ExCM settings to allow the new format.

Here are the directions for making the update to the username from an email address. First, you will need to go to the content site web.config file and search for the attribute that reads:

useEmailAsUsername="true"

You can simply change this to "false" and have separate usernames and e-mail addresses.

Now you have a Username and E-mail Address field in the registration form.

Note: Existing users will still need to use their e-mail address to authenticate...this will only affect users created after you make the web.config edit.   

Let's say you have decided to keep the default settings and use the user's email address as the username, but you notice that the default ExCM sign-in screen shows “User Name:” instead of “Email:”. What if you want to change the verbiage on the sign-in screen to show “Email”?

To do this you will need to browse out to "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\COMPANYURL\App_GlobalResources" and open the excm.en-US file and make the appropriate change.

Once you have opened the file you can run a search for “User Name”, then look for the "<value> User Name: <value>" and change “User Name” to “Email”. Next, save the file, and run an IIS reset.

Refresh your browser and you should see that the sign-in page now shows “Email:”, which will hopefully make things less confusing for the end user.

These changes are just a few of the many ways ExCM strives to make your extranet experience seamless and tailored for you and your extranet users. 


©2019 PremierPoint Solutions. All Rights Reserved. 

What To Know When Migrating Extranet Collaboration Manager (ExCM)

With SharePoint 2019 on the horizon, you may be considering upgrading. If you are using ExCM for your extranet needs, then you may wonder about the process and how involved it is. Hopefully, with the help of this guide, you will see that the ExCM migration may be the easiest part of your upgrade! If you are still leery, contact us about our migration assistance package and let us walk you through migrating ExCM.

Whether you are going to follow Microsoft’s detach/attach method for migrating, or you will be using a tool such as Metalogix or Sharegate, the process is mostly the same… there are just a few extra steps with Microsoft’s path.

The first step of your migration is to build out your new SharePoint environment. When building the new environment, you will use the same web app name, URL, database name, role and role provider, etc. Basically the same structure, just a different version of SharePoint. While you will have the same names, the content will be empty. For example; If you have an extranet at www.mycompany.com/site/home, the page will still exist, but there will not be any subsites or content on the site. At this point, you should be able to browse out to the root site collection and a page should load.

When you have the new version of SharePoint installed and looking like your old SharePoint environment, The next step is to install the correct version of ExCM in your new environment. Once installed, configure ExCM with the same settings as your previous version. If your new environment is using a new SQL server, name the database created during the setup Wizard the same as the old database. This way, once you have tested the installation of ExCM, you can simply delete this blank database and migrate the previous database containing all your extranet users over.

If you are not using a new SQL database, you will need to name your database something similar to the original database name (ex. Instead of ExtranetDirectory you may use ExtranetDirectory1) This way, once you have tested your new environment to ensure the install was a success, you can delete the ExtranetDirectory1 database and change your web.config file so that all references to ExtranetDirectory1 now point to ExtranetDirectory.

We have had many customers that have migrated from 2010 or 2013 to 2016 and whether they are using the detach/ attach method or a migration tool the biggest issue we have seen them run into seems to be an issue with the transfer of registration fields from the old ExCM to the new ExCM. This can be caused by having the wrong settings in the migration tool that prevent the content database from fully transferring the correct data. Whatever the reason the fix is pretty easy. After transferring the content data to your new ExCM environment you can delete the registration and then recreate it.

To help lead you in the right direction we have provided a couple of links to PremierPoint Solutions documentation on migrating from SharePoint 2010 to 2013 and SharePoint 2013 to 2016.

The primary thing to remember when migrating is to have a plan laid out and always make backups when possible.

©2019 PremierPoint Solutions. All Rights Reserved. 

Extranet Collaboration Manager (ExCM) Best Practices

When using SharePoint as an Extranet, you will have many options and decisions to make and we hope to share some insights that we have seen from several years of working on SharePoint Extranets day in and day out. Can you ignore some of these suggestions? Probably, but we only do this for a living… what do we know?

So, with that being said here is a list of our recommended best practices for installing and using ExCM. 

Separate Extranet Web Application

If your extranet will be hosted on the same SharePoint Farm as your Intranet, we recommend a separate web app for extranet. This is one of the first steps in creating a secure extranet that is also easy to use. You can follow our documentation on Setting up a Web Application for your Extranet.

Use SSL Certificate

An SSL certificate, commonly known by the name Secure Sockets Layer, is a standard security protocol that’s used to ensure the safety of transmitted data over the Internet. Basically, when you use SSL certificates, an encrypted link is created that protects the connection between a browser and a web server, or between computer systems. This means that your external user can type in a password and know that it is securely being transmitted. You would think this step would be self-explanatory, but we are including it as it has come up before. Why you should use an SSL.

Remove Intranet-related UI Elements from Extranet Sites

Not all of the out-of-the-box features of SharePoint are intended to be used in every use case. For Extranet use cases, there are several user interface (UI) elements and features that are primarily intended for Intranet use cases and therefore we recommend removing them from your Extranet web applications.

The Intranet-intended features that we recommend that you remove from your extranet web applications are:

       

* Links to Newsfeed, OneDrive, and Sites

* User Profile Service

* Links for Sharing, Following, and Client Synchronization

   

Below are some links to help you accomplish this in your environment.

Removing Intranet Related UI Elements from Extranet Sites

Use a SQL database for storing external users ASP.net authentication provider

Single URL for Internal and external zones (IE do not extend)

Extranet Web Application

When implementing Extranet Calibration Manager (ExCM) 2016, 2013 or 2010, we recommend using an extranet web application that is configured to use multi-mode authentication (as opposed to using an extended web application, as was the common practice with SharePoint 2007/2010). Active Directory is used as the authentication provider for internal users (your employees) and the ASP.NET SQL Membership Provider is used for external users (your customer, vendor, or other collaboration business partners).

Understanding External Accounts vs Internal Accounts

Where to install Extranet Collaboration Manager

Install and deploy ExCM 2016 or 2013 R2 on your Central Administration server AND the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application service must be started on that server and remain started.

Best Practices After Installing ExCM

·    Create a Root site collection as a general information site collection and a landing page

·    Create a separate site collection per external engagement (subsites for separate interaction with external engagement)

·    Enable anonymous access 

·    Set up Security Policies 

·    Turn on invitations

·    Set up site sponsors 

·    Use Roles like AD groups 

·    Set password policies 

·    Set expiration policies 

·    Bypass the sign in page for internal users 




©2019 PremierPoint Solutions. All Rights Reserved.