bcrypt

bcrypt is a password hashing function designed to securely store user passwords in computer systems. It was developed by Niels Provos and David Mazières in 1999, building upon the Blowfish cipher and incorporating a computationally intensive key derivation process. The primary goal of bcrypt is to make brute-force or dictionary attacks computationally expensive and thus more difficult for malicious actors to compromise stored passwords.

bcrypt employs a technique called key stretching, which involves repeatedly applying the hashing algorithm to increase the time required to compute each hash. This process is controlled by a cost factor or work factor, typically expressed as a logarithmic value that determines the number of iterations. Higher cost factors increase security by extending processing time, although they also require more computational resources during password verification.

One of the key features of bcrypt is its use of a salt—random data added to each password before hashing—to protect against rainbow table attacks. This ensures that even identical passwords will produce unique hashes. bcrypt outputs a fixed-length hash that includes information about the salt and the cost factor, facilitating secure verification.

bcrypt has become a widely adopted standard for password hashing in various programming languages and platforms, thanks to its strong security properties and resilience against hardware-accelerated attacks. Its design emphasizes security, adaptability to increasing computational power, and resistance to attacks targeting password databases.

Overall, bcrypt remains a popular choice for secure password storage in both open-source and commercial applications, playing a critical role in safeguarding user credentials in modern cybersecurity practices.