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Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting How to store the passwords securely and use in scripts? Post 303034104 by Neo on Thursday 18th of April 2019 06:19:46 AM
Old 04-18-2019
Just to add to this, and to emphasize what others have said:

When we store a user password in the DB, for example a web site DB, that password is the cryptographic hash of the password + a bit of salt. When a user logs in they normally type a plain text password and that password is sent in plaintext across the net, hopefully in a secure SSL channel. At the server side, the plain text password is retrieved by the server side logic and then the cryptographic hash + salt is compared to the same in the DB.

In some cases, the hash (more often than not an "md5()" hash) is stored locally on the client side the hash is sent as a cookie (or a $_POST or $_GET var), for example, so the plaintext password is not required (this is but one scenario).

However, on the server, we assume there is some standard file system security in place.

So, when an application needs to access the DB, normally the password is stored securely in a plain text configuration file. Likewise, we can store the hash instead of the password, but since the hash of the password and the password can both be used to gain access, most "day to day CMS" systems store the plaintext password in a secure file.

Some people hide this file is some obscure location on the server, like in a "hidden" dot file. This kind of security-by-obscurity is not very good, but some think it is better than nothing.

However, this is just a description of basic authentication.

Systems which have a higher risk use more complex (and expensive) methods for authentication.

As Robin mentioned, we need the details of the application and basic system architecture to properly advise; and as I have mentioned, we should know the risk profile of the system, to really help you.
This User Gave Thanks to Neo For This Post:
 

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md5crypt(n)						   MD5-based password encryption					       md5crypt(n)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

NAME
md5crypt - MD5-based password encryption SYNOPSIS
package require Tcl 8.2 package require md5 2.0 package require md5crypt ?1.1.0? ::md5crypt::md5crypt password salt ::md5crypt::aprcrypt password salt ::md5crypt::salt ?length? _________________________________________________________________ DESCRIPTION
This package provides an implementation of the MD5-crypt password encryption algorithm as pioneered by FreeBSD and currently in use as a replacement for the unix crypt(3) function in many modern systems. An implementation of the closely related Apache MD5-crypt is also avail- able. The output of these commands are compatible with the BSD and OpenSSL implementation of md5crypt and the Apache 2 htpasswd program. COMMANDS
::md5crypt::md5crypt password salt Generate a BSD compatible md5-encoded password hash from the plaintext password and a random salt (see SALT). ::md5crypt::aprcrypt password salt Generate an Apache compatible md5-encoded password hash from the plaintext password and a random salt (see SALT). ::md5crypt::salt ?length? Generate a random salt string suitable for use with the md5crypt and aprcrypt commands. SALT
The salt passed to either of the encryption schemes implemented here is checked to see if it begins with the encryption scheme magic string (either "$1$" for MD5-crypt or "$apr1$" for Apache crypt). If so, this is removed. The remaining characters up to the next $ and up to a maximum of 8 characters are then used as the salt. The salt text should probably be restricted the set of ASCII alphanumeric characters plus "./" (dot and forward-slash) - this is to preserve maximum compatability with the unix password file format. If a password is being generated rather than checked from a password file then the salt command may be used to generate a random salt. EXAMPLES
% md5crypt::md5crypt password 01234567 $1$01234567$b5lh2mHyD2PdJjFfALlEz1 % md5crypt::aprcrypt password 01234567 $apr1$01234567$IXBaQywhAhc0d75ZbaSDp/ % md5crypt::md5crypt password [md5crypt::salt] $1$dFmvyRmO$T.V3OmzqeEf3hqJp2WFcb. BUGS, IDEAS, FEEDBACK This document, and the package it describes, will undoubtedly contain bugs and other problems. Please report such in the category md5crypt of the Tcllib SF Trackers [http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=12883]. Please also report any ideas for enhancements you may have for either package and/or documentation. SEE ALSO
md5 KEYWORDS
hashing, md5, md5crypt, message-digest, security COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2003, Pat Thoyts <patthoyts@users.sourceforge.net> md5crypt 1.1.0 md5crypt(n)
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