Generate random password in MVC application

In this article I am going to explain how to generate random password in MVC application.

Description:

I want to generate strong random password for users when they registers to website. Here in this article I am going to generate password using 2 ways.

Implementation:

Add an empty controller to project. I have create action Generatepassword.

  public ActionResult Generatepassword()

        {

            return View();

        }

Using Membership Generate method

This is the built-in function. To use this add the namespace to controller System.Web.Security. To generate the password you have to specify the length (number of charters) and number of special charters (non-alphanumeric).  In this example 8 is the length of password and 1 will be special chartaters.

        [HttpPost]

        public ActionResult GeneratePassword()

        {

            string password = Membership.GeneratePassword(8, 1);

            ViewBag.password = password;

            return View("Generatepassword ");

        }

Using loop (alphanumeric + non-alphanumeric charters)

[HttpPost]

        public ActionResult GenerateAlphaNumericPwd()

        {

            string numbers = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz!@#$%^&*()-=";

            Random objrandom = new Random();

            string passwordString = "";

            string strrandom = string.Empty;

            for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++)

            {

                int temp = objrandom.Next(0, numbers.Length);

                passwordString = numbers.ToCharArray()[temp].ToString();

                strrandom += passwordString;

            }

            ViewBag.strongpwd = strrandom;

            return View("Generatepassword ");

        }

Complete code of controller:

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Data;

using System.Data.Entity;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.Mvc;

using infinitescroll.Models;

using System.Web.Security;

namespace infinitescroll.Controllers

{

    public class testController : Controller

    {

        //

        // GET: /test/

        public ActionResult Index()

        {

            return View();

        }

        public ActionResult Generatepassword()

        {

            return View();

        }

        [HttpPost]

        public ActionResult GenerateAlphaNumericPwd()

        {

            string numbers = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz!@#$%^&*()-=";

            Random objrandom = new Random();

            string passwordString = "";

            string strrandom = string.Empty;

            for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++)

            {

                int temp = objrandom.Next(0, numbers.Length);

                passwordString = numbers.ToCharArray()[temp].ToString();

                strrandom += passwordString;

            }

            ViewBag.strongpwd = strrandom;

            return View("Generatepassword ");

        }

        [HttpPost]

        public ActionResult GeneratePassword()

        {

            string password = Membership.GeneratePassword(8, 1);

            ViewBag.password = password;

            return View("Generatepassword ");

        }

        //

        protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)

        {

            db.Dispose();

            base.Dispose(disposing);

        }

    }

}

 Add view

Add view to Generatepassword actionresult.  

Complete source of view:

@{

    ViewBag.Title = "Generate Password";

}

@using (Html.BeginForm("GenerateAlphaNumericPwd", "Test"))

{

    <table>

        <tr>

            <td>Click on button to Generate Random Strong Password :</td>

            <td><input id="btnpwd" type="submit" value="Generate Password" /></td>

        </tr>

        <tr>

            <td></td>

            <td>@ViewBag.strongpwd</td>

        </tr>

    </table>

}

@using (Html.BeginForm("GeneratePassword", "Test"))

{

    <table>

        <tr>

            <td>Click on button to Generate Password (Membership):</td>

            <td><input id="btnpwd" type="submit" value="Generate Password" /></td>

        </tr>

        <tr>

            <td></td>

            <td>@ViewBag.password</td>

        </tr>

    </table>

}