Crthuky

One of my old email addresses was involved in the recent Whitepages breach disclosure (source: Have I Been Pwned).

I don't remember on which websites I used that email address for registration, but I would like to reset my password everywhere possible. Websites could include: Facebook, Google, Amazon, eBay, Paypal, etc. - basically the top N commonly-used or sensitive web applications/platforms.

This is particularly important as I was not using a password manager at the time and may have reused passwords.

Is there an existing way to automate initiating password resets, mainly by requesting password reset emails, on common platforms given a single email address that I have access to?

No, not really - they all have different processes for verifying your identity for password reset requests, and there isn't any standard for bulk password resets. For example, Apple may use a device which is registered to the account as a confirmation that it's you sending the request, while Facebook uses different schemes depending on whether you're changing your password from a device where you've previously logged in, or from a completely unrelated one.

Easiest way is probably to go through common websites (e.g. work through a list like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_popular_websites, ignoring any which you are sure don't apply) providing the email address you want to reset, and watching for reset emails. It's not perfect, but if you're changing the ones you know are sensitive (e.g. ones which have credit card details associated, or email accounts, or government systems), that's ok - you know that those accounts will have unique passwords, even if an attacker may be able to log into your abandoned MySpace (or other defunct social network) account with an old password.

This is a known problem without an existing solution. Some password management tools are working on it, but it is not complete or fool-proof.

For example: https://helpdesk.lastpass.com/generating-a-password/

Auto-Password Change will change a site’s password with a
single-click. This feature currently supports 75 of the most popular
websites. You can see the full list of supported websites below.

In general, though, when you use a password manager for all your accounts, 90% of the work you need to do is already done. You know which sites use that username/email, and you can avoid re-using passwords in the first place (or know which accounts use a shared password).

One tip to help you out on your journey is that multiple sites have recently implemented the "well-known password change URL". This is something you can plug in to any (supporting) website that redirects to the page that lets you change your password.

Take the homepage of the site, and add /.well-known/change-password to the end. Examples:

accounts.google.com/.well-known/change-password
 -> https://myaccount.google.com/signinoptions/password

github.com/.well-known/change-password
 -> https://github.com/settings/admin

twitter.com/.well-known/change-password
 -> https://twitter.com/settings/password

meta.discourse.org/.well-known/change-password
 -> https://meta.discourse.org/my/preferences/account

One alternative solution to identify sites that you used your email address on is to look into your browser's saved passwords.

This will allow you to see every site you have saved passwords for in your browser which might help you identify ones that need to be changed.

Obviously, this only works if you use the browser's "save password" feature.

It's a hard problem because the top list of websites is so personal... And what you have to lose is in no way proportional to the site's popularity on any index of popular sites.

And only you know where you might have accounts.

For instance, I consider gaming sites to be more critical than banking sites. Because there are much fewer controls and less legal peril involved in hacking MMO gaming accounts, so they are the darlings of crackers. On the other hand, if you're done with Maplestory, you may not care.

But you certainly don't need to care about your Eve Online account if you definitely never played it. Only you know this sort of thing.

If you think you might have used a site in the past, why not just try your old credential?

Why not just spam every website with password reset requests?

They're not going to cooperate with large scale automated requests of this type.

First, the website acknowledging whether an email has an account, would empower spear phishing. Scammer gets a billion emails (easy enough), they start banging the website's password reset to learn "does this email have an account here, or not?" Now they have a list of 1 million emails that do. Now they start spear-phishing those known account holders. Put them on a daily newsletter where unsubscribe requires a login, that kind of thing. This is a "many email addresses against a single site" attack. The site's best defense is to add friction to the password reset process, e.g. a CAPTCHA, or simply design the password-reset process so it tells the inquirer nothing about whether an account exists. This is even more important for sites like Ashley Madison or Furries where having an account there could be embarrassing.

Second, if a cracker managed to gain control of an email, they could simply do exactly what you're trying to do - ascertain which websites this email has an account on. With a full dossier, they can then attack those sites or simply sell the credentials for more than they could otherwise. This is a "single email vs many sites" attack. In this case, the site needs to control one-off access to the password reset function - something like a CAPTCHA is called for. And 2-factor authentication - but again, this 2FA must not disclose to the casual inquirer whether an account here exists.

Because of this, I don't see a probability of anyone writing an app to do this. The writer would find herself in a hacking "arms race" with many companies trying to stop her automation from working.