CODEWITHSUNDEEP
hashcoldfusionpasswordssalt-cryptographycoldfusion-2016
espresso_coffee
espresso_coffee

Reputation: 6110

Best practice for storing password in database?

I'm creating new login system for my single page app. This system will require administrator to create account for the users. Once they setup account for the user I will send them an email where they have to enter their Information like Security Question and Password. So I have done some research and looked over our existing system. There is hash function that is used together with salt. I read few articles and there is a lot of debate on hash being vulnerable. Also I see that in this case hashed password is stored as well as salt. They are in separate columns. Is this good practice to store salt in DB? Also is there better way to store password in database? Here is example of the logic that I found:

<cfset password = trim(FORM.password)>
<cfset salt = randomSalt()> //This is function that generates random salt.
<cfset totPW = password & salt>
<cfset hashedPW = hash(totPW,"SHA-256")>

I'm currently using Cold Fusion 2016. I'm not sure if there is some better way to encrypt the password in CF. If anyone can provide some useful resource or example please let me know. Thanks.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 10720

Answers (1)

Alex
Alex

Reputation: 7833

Generally speaking, hashing is still fine these days. The thing that matters here is what hashing algorithm you use (and how many iterations). In case of database leaks, you want to make it as difficult as possible to match inputs (commmon password/dictionary based attack). Salting does help a little bit, so does having an irregular pattern salt or a hidden number of iterations based on the username etc. Having different hashing strategies helps as long as the attacker doesn't know how your hashing is implemented. (Accessing the database server is one thing, accessing your source code another.) It's about causing effort to the attacker.

Now about hashing algorithms: SHA-2 is easier to attack than for example bcrypt due to being targetable by GPUs. The number of iterations on the hash will take the attacker more time for each password. bcrypt isn't supported by hash(), but at least SHA-512 is. hash() supports iterations (see docs). Rule of thumb is having an iteration count that takes at least a second to process on your server hardware.

On a side note: Don't trim the password input, people might intend to use leading/trailing whitespaces.

Upvotes: 4

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