change password to set value in cakephp - php

Question

I'm using Cake 2.1.1 and trying to write an ajax function to reset a users password to a specific format. I have been able to change the password, but unable to make it so that the new password actually works to log the user in.
I have this function in my Users controller:
function ajax_reset_password(){
$this->autoRender=false;
$user = $this->User->find('first',array(
'conditions'=>array('User.email'=>$_GET['email'])
));
$this->User->id = $user['User']['id'];
$pass = $_GET['name'].'2014';
$passHashed= $this->Auth->password($pass);
$this->User->set('password', $pass);
$this->User->set('updated_at',date("Y-m-d H:i:s"));
$this->User->save();
//... code to email user new password
}
And this is my Users Controller beforeSave:
public function beforeSave(){
if (isset($this->data['User']['password'])) {
$this->data['User']['password'] = AuthComponent::password($this->data['User']['password']);
}
return true;
}
If I run this function and check my database, I can see that the value of password has changed literally to "name2014", but I cannot login with that password.
If I set the password to $passHashed and check my database, I see that the value of password has changed to a hashed value, but again, I cannot use the new password to login.
There is also a 'salt' field in my Users table that never changes.
I am guessing that the issue is that the salt needs to update with the password hash in order to properly decyrpt it, but I'm unsure of how to update the salt. Can I get it in my controller and set the value directly, or is this handled some other way with the AuthComponent?
Other posts about this topic seem to work fine with the code I have been using, but I also haven't found any that trying to set the password value directly.

Answer 1

Use what you have in the beforeSave(). (Don't try the route of hashing in the Controller).
If it's not hashing, just do some standard debugging and find out why it's not getting into that part of the code:
debug($this->data);
exit;
if (isset($this->data['User']['password'])) {
// IT'S NOT GETTING HERE
//...
This is one of those where the "answer" is just a nudge toward debugging your code, since it's clear where you can find out exactly what's going on and why by just seeing what's in the data and when.