Password Encryption

ozpacific

Hi All,

I just want to know how to encrypt password's that are in a database?
People say not to use md5('$Password'); as you can't retrieve them when you have forgotten your password.

Matt

Kudose

Actually, with the DB that I have, when I use md5 it encrypts it into the db, but if for some unknown reason I forget it, I can go into the DB GUI and select decrypt, and it shows it me me. Mybe your DB GUI, if you have one, will let you do this as well.

diego25

If you can retrieve the lost password, then anyone who hacks into your database can retrieve it. That's why people use one-way encryptions instead. And if you forget your password, the admin would just reset it to something and then the user will login using that default password and change his/her password again.

For one way encryption, look into PHP's crypt function, or MySQL's password() function.

Diego

seby

Originally posted by Kudose
Actually, with the DB that I have, when I use md5 it encrypts it into the db, but if for some unknown reason I forget it, I can go into the DB GUI and select decrypt, and it shows it me me. Mybe your DB GUI, if you have one, will let you do this as well.

i don't see how you are doing that, md5() hash is a one way encryption, its impossible to decrypt it.