Best practice forum (Archived)

What method does Totara use to encrypt user pw's?

 
John Unnever
What method does Totara use to encrypt user pw's?
par John Unnever, Tuesday 26 July 2016, 12:02
Groupe Partners

Hello!  Just a general question that I saw some conflicting information online via moodle searches..   can anyone answer with certainty what method is used to encrypt user passwords in Totara?

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Tuesday 26 July 2016, 12:40
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Simon Coggins
Re: What method does Totara use to encrypt user pw's?
par Simon Coggins, Tuesday 26 July 2016, 13:52
Groupe Totara

Hi John,

One small technical point - passwords are one-way hashed not encrypted - the difference being there is no way to "decrypt" them other than comparing a hash of the plain-text password to make sure it matches.

From 2.5 onwards passwords are hashed using the bcrypt algorithm, with a per-user salt and the default PHP cost factor. We use the functions that are built in to PHP (http://php.net/manual/en/ref.password.php) along with a compatibility library to provide support for older versions of PHP in versions that support earlier php versions.

Using Bcrypt for password hashing is considered industry best practice.

Simon