How To Password Hash In Php

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Password hashing is an important step in ensuring the security of user data while developing web applications. It helps protect user passwords from being easily compromised in case of a data breach. In this blog post, we will discuss the basics of password hashing and how to use the built-in password hashing functions in PHP.

Password Hashing Basics

Password hashing is a one-way process where a plain text password is converted into an irreversible fixed-length string of characters. This process makes it difficult for attackers to reverse-engineer the original password from the hash. When a user tries to log in, their entered password is hashed and compared to the stored hash, and if they match, the user is granted access.

PHP’s Built-In Password Hashing Functions

PHP provides a set of built-in functions to handle password hashing and verification. These functions are part of the password_hash() and password_verify() API.

1. password_hash()

The password_hash() function creates a new password hash using a strong one-way hashing algorithm. It takes two required arguments, the plain-text password and the hashing algorithm. The most recommended algorithm to use is PASSWORD_DEFAULT, which currently uses the bcrypt algorithm and may be updated to a stronger algorithm in the future.

Here’s an example of how to use the password_hash() function:

 <?php
$plain_password = "my_password";
$hash = password_hash($plain_password, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);
echo $hash; // Displays the hashed password
?>

Note that each time you run the code above, the resulting hash will be different due to the automatically generated salt. This is normal and expected behavior, as it provides an additional layer of security.

2. password_verify()

The password_verify() function checks if a given plain-text password matches the hash of a stored password. It takes two arguments, the plain-text password, and the stored hash, and returns true if they match or false otherwise.

Here’s an example of using the password_verify() function:

 <?php
$plain_password = "my_password";
$stored_hash = "$2y$10$7dU1L6uKJvrfCg0y8MiVmejG63dhrzvZJWbQ0m0LqX3DmKjekcWQ2"; // Example of a stored hash

if (password_verify($plain_password, $stored_hash)) {
    echo "Password is valid!";
} else {
    echo "Invalid password!";
}
?>

In a real-world application, the stored hash would typically be retrieved from a database where user password hashes are stored.

Conclusion

Using PHP’s built-in password hashing functions like password_hash() and password_verify() makes it easy and secure to handle user passwords in your web applications. This helps ensure the security of user data and reduces the risk of data breaches.