How much user data should be required to grant a password reset?

Posted by Andrew Heath on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Andrew Heath
Published on 2010-06-10T02:20:21Z Indexed on 2010/06/10 2:22 UTC
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best-practices

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password

I'm looking to add password-reset functionality to my site and have been browsing the numerous threads discussing various aspects of that issue here on SO. One thing I haven't really seen clarified is how much information to require from the user for confirmation before sending out the reset email.

is email alone enough?
email + account username?
email + account username + some other identifying value all accounts must input?

I don't want my site to seem like an old wrinkly nun with a ruler, but I don't want people to be able to abuse the password reset system willy-nilly.

Suggestions?

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