Seeking Guidance on Implementing User Email Changes

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I am currently working on a project where users need the ability to change their email addresses for login. I'm wondering if anyone has experience implementing this feature in Mendix and could provide guidance on best practices. Specifically, I'm interested in understanding: How to handle the authentication system for dynamic email updates. Recommendations for a secure verification process. Any potential pitfalls or challenges others have encountered. Any insights or examples from your experiences would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance.
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Hi Nada,

Thoughful question! Very wise to seek for advices around such a topic.

So the end-user of your Mendix app wants Self-Service process to change its own e-mail address.

I would say it mainly depends on:

1. where do you use the e-mail address for and

2. what are the already applied security measures.

 

Some examples:

On simple apps, you could just say: you're logged in, so yeah: you may change anything you want in this account.

Also the other extreme is true: you already passed 2FA, know your mother's maiden name and your library card number to login, so sure: you may change your e-mail.

 

If changing your e-mail also changes your login or is used to send e-mails with personal information, you can definitely consider it as a high sensitive operation and require (recent) MFA before you may perform such an operation. If you don't login with MFA, you could implement a one-time token to be send to the previous e-mail to confirm the process. The most important downside is that users without access to their previous e-mailaccount cannot do this, and will need support.

Don't forget to verify the same things as you (hopefully) do on creation: validate the new e-mailaddress (maybe also with confirmation link), check uniqueness, etc.

 

Hopefully this gives some thought!

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