Securing Passwords
Securing user passwords is a critical aspect of application security. Storing passwords in plaintext is a significant security risk, as it exposes users to potential data breaches. Ruby provides tools and libraries to securely hash and manage passwords. 5.1 Storing Passwords Safely
When storing passwords, its essential to follow best practices:
Use a Secure Hash Function: Always use a strong, cryptographically secure hash function like bcrypt or Argon2 to hash passwords. Avoid older and weaker hash functions like MD5 or SHA-1. Add a Salt: As mentioned earlier, adding a unique salt to each users password before hashing it prevents rainbow table attacks. Use Proper Key Derivation: Use key derivation functions (KDFs) designed for password hashing, such as bcrypts adaptive algorithm, which automatically adjusts the number of iterations to mitigate brute force attacks. Keep Password Hashes Secret: Store password hashes securely and ensure they are not accessible to unauthorized users. 5.2 Password Hashing in Ruby
Ruby provides the bcrypt gem, which is a popular choice for securely hashing passwords. Heres how you can use it:
password = ‘my_secure_password’# Generate a salt and hash the passwordsalt = BCrypt::Engine.generate_salthashed_password = BCrypt::Engine.hash_secret(password, salt)puts “Hashed Password: #{hashed_password}”ruby
require ‘bcrypt’
# Users password
password = ‘my_secure_password’
# Generate a salt and hash the password
salt = BCrypt::Engine.generate_salt
hashed_password = BCrypt::Engine.hash_secret(password, salt)
puts “Salt: #{salt}”
puts “Hashed Password: #{hashed_password}”ruby
require ‘bcrypt’
# Users password
password = ‘my_secure_password’
# Generate a salt and hash the password
salt = BCrypt::Engine.generate_salt
hashed_password = BCrypt::Engine.hash_secret(password, salt)
puts “Salt: #{salt}”
puts “Hashed Password: #{hashed_password}”
In this example, we use the BCrypt::Engine to generate a salt and hash the users password. BCrypt automatically handles salting and uses a slow hashing algorithm to make brute force attacks more challenging.