PasswortHashes

PasswortHashes are the outputs produced when a password is processed by a cryptographic hash function, usually with a per-password salt. In typical systems, the plaintext password is not stored; instead, a PasswortHash (often along with its salt and hashing parameters) is kept. During authentication, the user’s input is hashed using the same parameters and compared to the stored PasswortHash to determine validity.

Common password-hashing algorithms include bcrypt, Argon2, scrypt, and PBKDF2. These are designed to be slow and, in some cases, memory-hard to impede rapid brute-force attacks. Each hash often encodes or is accompanied by parameters such as the work factor, memory cost, and the algorithm name, allowing verification routines to reproduce the exact hash for comparison.

Salts are random values added to each password before hashing, ensuring that identical passwords yield different hashes. This protects against rainbow table attacks and ensures that breaches expose many unique hashes. In good practice, a new, unique salt is generated for every password and stored with the hash.

Security considerations include using a modern, suitable algorithm with an adequate cost factor, regularly updating parameters as computing power advances, and storing any additional secret values, such as a pepper, separately from the database. Password hashes should be recomputed and rehashed if the algorithm or parameters are upgraded, typically during user login or password changes.

Understanding PasswortHashes is central to secure authentication design, as they determine how passwords are verified without exposing the plaintext and how attackers’ opportunities are mitigated during breaches. See also password storage and cryptographic hash functions.