How to change firebase email without reauthentication - ios

Question

I implemented a button in my app that allows the user to change their email using Firebase.
#IBAction func resetEmail(_ sender: Any) {
let alertController = UIAlertController(title: "Change Email", message: "", preferredStyle: .alert)
alertController.addTextField { (textField : UITextField!) -> Void in
textField.placeholder = "Enter New Email Address"
let saveAction = UIAlertAction(title: "Save", style: .default, handler: { (action : UIAlertAction!) -> Void in
//Reset Email
let currentUser = Auth.auth().currentUser
if Auth.auth().currentUser != nil{
currentUser?.updateEmail(to: textField.text!) { error in
if let error = error {
print(error)
} else {
print("CHANGED")
let user = Auth.auth().currentUser
let name = user?.displayName!
let ref = Database.database().reference().child("main").child("users_sen").child(name!).child("email")
ref.setValue(textField.text!)
}
}
}
})
alertController.addAction(saveAction)
}
self.present(alertController, animated: true, completion: {
alertController.view.superview?.isUserInteractionEnabled = true
alertController.view.superview?.addGestureRecognizer(UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(self.alertClose(gesture:))))
})
}
However, when I run it and I try to change the email it gives me this error:
UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=This operation is sensitive and requires
recent authentication. Log in again before retrying this request.
and tells me to re-sign in order to change the email. How do I avoid this? How do I change the email without re-signing in?
This is how I change the password:
// Password updated.
let currentUser = Auth.auth().currentUser
currentUser?.updatePassword(to: textField.text!) { error in
if let error = error {
} else {
// Password updated.
print("success")
}
}
let userEmail = Auth.auth().currentUser?.email
self.currentPassword = textField.text!
let credential = EmailAuthProvider.credential(withEmail: userEmail!, password: textField.text!)
currentUser?.reauthenticate(with: credential) { error in
if let error = error {
// An error happened.
} else {
// User re-authenticated.
}
}

Answer 1

Base on Firebase's documentation, you need to re-authenticate the user when performing this type of action.
Re-authenticate a user Some security-sensitive actions—such as
deleting an account, setting a primary email address, and changing a
password—require that the user has recently signed in. If you perform
one of these actions, and the user signed in too long ago, the action
fails with an error. When this happens, re-authenticate the user by
getting new sign-in credentials from the user and passing the
credentials to reauthenticateWithCredential.
let user = Auth.auth().currentUser
let credential = EmailAuthProvider.credential(withEmail: "email", password: "password")
user?.reauthenticate(with: credential)
{ error in
if let error = error {
// An error happened.
} else {
// User re-authenticated.
user?.updateEmail(to: "newemail")
{ error in
}
}
}

Answer 2

To change user email without re-authentication you can also leverage Cloud Functions. An example course of action could be:
Create a function that accepts user access token and new email address as parameters
In the function, verify access token and get the user ID from it
In the function, call
admin.auth().updateUser(userId, { email: newEmail })
Call the new function from the client
Note: This solution is less secure because the user intent is not verified by additional authentication. Therefore anyone getting hold of the user's device could change their email address.

Answer 3

If you use email and password to authenticate a user you should to do something like this.
You have to re-authenticate user using credential
Re-authenticate user
Update email
Before don't forget to get current user in your class and import Firebase like this :
...
import Firebase
class Blabla {
...
var currentUser: User? {
return Auth.auth().currentUser
}
Then :
func updateUserEmail(newEmail: String, password: String) {
// 1. Get the credential
guard let currentEmail = currentUser?.email else {return}
var credential = EmailAuthProvider.credential(withEmail: currentEmail, password: password)
You can't get directly password, so you must ask to the user his password by a textfield or other.
// 2. Re-authenticate the user
//(To change mail or password, the user must to be authentificate a short time ago !!!)
self.currentUser?.reauthenticate(with: credential, completion: { (result, error) in
if error != nil {
print("ERROR: ", error?.localizedDescription)
return
}
//3. Update email
self.currentUser?.updateEmail(to: newEmail, completion: { (error) in
if error != nil {
print("ERROR: ", error?.localizedDescription)
}else {
//Do something, for example present an alert of confirmation..
}
})
})
All of the code in the same function from the step 1.