by infocalypse » Wed May 20, 2009 12:34 am
Jigsaw,
I'll agree but disagree. Yes, the implementation of a lost-password mechanism shoud ideally have cryptic links and automated processes for resetting passwords without submitting them in plain text.
That said, this isn't exactly high-security software we're talking about, nor do we have an expansive (or highly paid) development staff to pull engineering resources from.
I don't know about you, but if simplifying this process means there's a better chance of getting it into the next release, I'll gladly accept the addition of a simple email address field for each new account along with a basic "forgot password" link on the main page which emails the password in plain text back to the user.
To ward off security concerns in the short term, perhaps administrators could simply elect to disable this functionality altogether. Again, I like your ideas in principle... but I'm more inclined to vote for the simplest implementation first.