CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpdatabasehash
Andy Lobel
Andy Lobel

Reputation: 3416

PHP: What maximum length to set a password field in a database?

when I hash my password using hash('sha512', $salt . $password);, should the maximum length in the password column in the database be 512 or does it matter if it gets chopped down? Or can it possibly be longer than 512? Thanks.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 13316

Answers (4)

Rajat Singhal
Rajat Singhal

Reputation: 11254

SHA512 outputs 512 bits, or 64 bytes. You can store those 64 bytes in a binary column, which are represented by 128 hexadecimal numbers...

Hense you need 128 size..

For remainig See here

Upvotes: 5

chrisn
chrisn

Reputation: 2125

This depends on the length of the string that the hash algorithm you're using produces. The comment posted here shows that the length of the string produced by the sha512 algorithm you've chosen is 128 characters in length. Therefore, your field should be 128 characters. It can be more, but it's unnecessary. Making it less would trim the password down and thereby make your hashed passwords "invalid".

Upvotes: 1

Brett
Brett

Reputation: 721

Just a demonstration to see the length of the hashed password

$password = 'password';
$salt = 'salt';

$hash = hash('sha512', $salt.$password);

echo strlen($hash); // OUTPUTS 128

Upvotes: 1

afuzzyllama
afuzzyllama

Reputation: 6548

SHA512 actually returns a string of 128 length. So the short answer is, your field only needs to be 128 characters.

Upvotes: 14

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