How Passwords are Stored?

Do you know that a highly secured password usually comprises 95 characters( i.e., 26 lower case, 26 upper case, 10 digits, and 33 symbols) whatever might be its length. Passwords are initially not stored by anyone or any database by any organization. Actually, they are converted into 128-bit length strings which are alphanumeric and symbols. This conversion is constant and is done by the hash function. A hash function is a series of code that will take in the password string and digest it and gives a string with alphanumeric and symbols. Call this output a password digest. So this password digest is stored in the databases of the affiliated user. Every time we try to log in using these login creds, the password we enter is simply converted into the digest using the same hash function, and cross-check is done in that way. So the passwords we enter are not known to anyone except us, not even to the organization. The hashed digest is irreversible. So the entered password goes through a series of hash functions or steps to turn into a digest. These hash functions or methods are very precise and generate a vast difference in the digest even with a single letter change in the passwords.

After a series of drawbacks and advancements in privacy protection, new methods were introduced into hashing to make hashing digest harder to crack. Then SALTING came into action to make password digest much more secure. Salt is a random piece of data, say a character or series of characters to the passwords based on the user's password. The salted value may be any length. They are generated randomly by the hash function itself and appended to the user-given plain text password. The salted password, plaintext password appended with the salted value is then hashed using the hash function.

Check your password strength i.e., how long does your password take to be cracked by a password cracker:- Check your password strength