Reset registered devices using REST

As described in Recover after replacing a lost device, a user who has lost a mobile phone registered with PingOne Advanced Identity Cloud can register a replacement device by authenticating using a recovery code, deleting their existing device, and then registering a new device.

Additional support is required for users who lose mobile devices but did not save their recovery codes when they initially registered the device, and for users who have used up all their recovery codes.

PingOne Advanced Identity Cloud provides a REST API to reset a device profile by deleting information about a user’s registered device. Both the user and administrator accounts can use the REST API to reset a device profile. Administrators can:

Provide authenticated users with a self-service page that calls the REST API to reset their devices.
Call the REST API themselves to reset a user’s device profiles.
Call the REST API themselves to reset a device that is out of sync, where the HOTP counter exceeds the HOTP threshold window and requires a reset.

When making a REST API call, specify the realm in the path component of the endpoint. You must specify the entire hierarchy of the realm. Prefix each realm in the hierarchy with the realms/ keyword. For example, /realms/root/realms/alpha.

The following examples assume that you have obtained an access token with the appropriate scopes.

The API calls reference the user by _id. You can get this ID from the raw JSON for the user’s profile.

Reset OATH devices

To reset a user’s OATH device profile, send an HTTP POST request to the /users/user/devices/2fa/oath?_action=reset endpoint.

The following example resets the OATH devices for a user in the alpha realm. The user’s _id in this example is 014c54bd-6078-4639-8316-8ce0e7746fa4.

$ curl \
--request POST \
--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
--header "Accept-API-Version: resource=1.0" \
--header "authorization: Bearer access-token" \
--data '{}' \
'https://<tenant-env-fqdn>/am/json/realms/root/realms/alpha/users/014c54bd-6078-4639-8316-8ce0e7746fa4/devices/2fa/oath?_action=reset'
{
  "result":true
}

The reset action deletes the OATH device profile, which by default has a limit of one profile per device, and sets the Select to Enable Skip option to its default value of Not Set.

Reset push devices

To reset push devices over REST, send an HTTP POST request to the /users/user/devices/2fa/push?_action=reset endpoint.

The following example resets the push devices for a user in the alpha realm. The user’s _id in this example is 014c54bd-6078-4639-8316-8ce0e7746fa4.

$ curl \
--request POST \
--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
--header "Accept-API-Version: resource=1.0" \
--header "authorization: Bearer access-token" \
--data '{}' \
'https://<tenant-env-fqdn>/am/json/realms/root/realms/alpha/users/014c54bd-6078-4639-8316-8ce0e7746fa4/devices/2fa/push?_action=reset'
{
  "result":true
}

Delete WebAuthn devices

The reset action is not implemented on the webauthn endpoint.

You can delete a WebAuthn device over REST as follows:

Retrieve a list of WebAuthn devices associated with a user by querying the users/user/devices/2fa/webauthn endpoint.

The following example retrieves a list of WebAuthn devices for a user in the alpha realm. The user’s _id in this example is 014c54bd-6078-4639-8316-8ce0e7746fa4.

$ curl \
--request GET \
--header "authorization: Bearer access-token" \
'https://<tenant-env-fqdn>/am/json/realms/root/realms/alpha/users/014c54bd-6078-4639-8316-8ce0e7746fa4/devices/2fa/webauthn?_queryFilter=true'
{
  "result": [
    {
      "_id": "ff1db8bf-d2d7-46e1-926a-568b877f87a5",
      "_rev": "163664231",
      "deviceName": "New Security Key",
      "uuid": "ff1db8bf-d2d7-46e1-926a-568b877f87a5",
      "deviceManagementStatus": false
    }
  ],
  "resultCount": 1,
  "pagedResultsCookie": null,
  "totalPagedResultsPolicy": "NONE",
  "totalPagedResults": -1,
  "remainingPagedResults": -1
}

Delete the required WebAuthn device from the user by sending an HTTP DELETE request to the users/user/devices/2fa/webauthn/device-id endpoint, including the ID of the WebAuthn device you want to delete:

$ curl \
--request DELETE \
--header "Accept-API-Version: resource=1.0" \
--header "authorization: Bearer access-token" \
'https://<tenant-env-fqdn>/am/json/realms/root/realms/alpha/users/014c54bd-6078-4639-8316-8ce0e7746fa4/devices/2fa/webauthn/ff1db8bf-d2d7-46e1-926a-568b877f87a5'
{
  "_id": "ff1db8bf-d2d7-46e1-926a-568b877f87a5",
  "_rev": "1642022518",
  "uuid": "ff1db8bf-d2d7-46e1-926a-568b877f87a5",
  "recoveryCodes": [
    ...
  ],
  "credentialId": "XGJpYNYv4AHG9sHHgxFfTw",
  "algorithm": "SHA256withECDSA",
  "deviceName": "New Security Key",
  "key": {
    "kty": "EC",
    "x": "zMDAfFwRQR_5HIGfK1iJQ0kYwtudesx_UXocoBVrWbo",
    "y": "UgRBOBlpq6QYsXlqfHDzY8XNv-5DEMajRp9_3klkhDU",
    "crv": "P-256"
  }
}

Repeat step 2 to delete additional WebAuthn devices for the user, if needed.

Reset bound devices

To delete all bound devices for a user, send an HTTP POST request to the /users/user/devices/2fa/binding?_action=reset endpoint. For details on binding devices to a user profile, refer to /sdks/latest/sdks/use-cases/how-to-bind-devices.html[device binding^].

The following example deletes bound devices for a user in the alpha realm. The user’s _id in this example is 014c54bd-6078-4639-8316-8ce0e7746fa4.

$ curl \
--request POST \
--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
--header "Accept-API-Version: resource=1.0" \
--header "authorization: Bearer access-token" \
--data '{}' \
'https://<tenant-env-fqdn>/am/json/realms/root/realms/alpha/users/014c54bd-6078-4639-8316-8ce0e7746fa4/devices/2fa/binding?_action=reset'
{
  "result":true
}

Deleting a bound device on the server does not remove the private keys from the device.

Instead, use the Ping SDKs to remove the bound device from the server, and then remove the keys from the device. Learn more in /sdks/latest/sdks/use-cases/how-to-bind-devices.html#unbind[Unbind devices by deleting keys^].