Tagged Questions

6
votes
3answers
229 views

Increase the security of an already stored password hash

Right now we're using 1024 byte PBKDF2 with 256 byte user-specific salt and variable iterations. However, I would much prefer to be able to, perhaps once every year or two, to be able to flat out ...
2
votes
3answers
194 views

Client-Side Hashing to decrease value of password guessing heuristics

Yes, this is 'yet another client-side hashing' question. But, don't leave yet, I think there is some value here. I'd like to do something to mitigate the affect on the community as a whole when my ...
3
votes
2answers
190 views

LastPass One Time Recovery Passwords--How?

The LastPass password manager stores One Time Recovery Passwords locally in each browser you use the plugin with: http://helpdesk.lastpass.com/account-recovery/ My question is, how can you have more ...
3
votes
6answers
277 views

Is there a table that compares hashing algorithms by speed, relatively (machine independent)

As far as I understood*, one of the major criteria when choosing a password / salt hashing algorithm is it's speed. To prevent brute force attacks, a slower algorithm is better (and also makes it more ...
2
votes
1answer
170 views

Is there a better way to take advantage of current 'approved', 'proven', and memory/cpu-expensive algorithms while using salts and peppers?

I've read about the concepts presented in these two questions: Pre-hash password before applying bcrypt to avoid restricting password length Would it make sense to use Bcrypt and PBKDF2 together? I ...
6
votes
2answers
716 views

With PBKDF2, what is an optimal Hash size in bytes? What about the size of the salt?

When creating a hash with PBKDF2, it allows the developer to choose the size of the hash. Is longer always better? Also, what about the size of the random salt? Should that be the same size as the ...
4
votes
3answers
359 views

Trying to understand password hashing

I am trying to get a grasp of password hashing. Back in the days it seemed so simple, just MD5(password + salt) and you are done. Then md5 was proven to have collisions so people started moving to ...
4
votes
3answers
298 views

How should I choose a difficulty factor for my password hashing function?

Assuming that I'm doing password hashing properly and using bcrypt, scrypt or PBKDF2, how should I go about choosing an appropriate difficulty factor? i.e rounds for bcrypt, iterations for PBKDF2 and ...
18
votes
5answers
707 views

Is it possible to increase the cost of BCrypt or PBKDF2 when its already calculated and without the original password?

I just wanted to know if you can increase the cost (iterations) of those two algorithms off-line. I want to increase the cost every year of my users passwords. One solution is to recalculate them ...
5
votes
1answer
1k views

Does NIST really recommend PBKDF2 for password hashing?

We hesitated between BCrypt and PBKDF2 for password hashing. In many forums and blogs people say something like "In their Special Publication SP 800-132 NIST basically recommends using PBKDF2 for ...
2
votes
3answers
608 views

Can the salt for PBKDF2 be a hash of the user-entered password?

I want to derive a key from a password in a client application that will be used as a master key that decrypts a data key. As far as I understand the salt should be private knowledge. Would it be ...
7
votes
1answer
616 views

Would it make sense to use Bcrypt and PBKDF2 together?

I've read various opinions about whether Bcrypt or PDBKF2 is a better key derivation hashing method. The answer seems to depend on a lot of complicated factors that are not easy to analyze. Would ...
20
votes
1answer
2k views

Are there more modern password hashing methods than bcrypt and scrypt?

This question made me start thinking about password hashing again. I currently use bcrypt (specifically py-bcrypt). I've heard a lot about PBKDF2, and scrypt. What I'm wondering is if there are any ...
35
votes
4answers
4k views

Recommended # of iterations when using PKBDF2-SHA256?

I'm curious if anyone has any advice or points of reference when it comes to determining how many iterations is 'good enough' when using PBKDF2 (specifically with SHA-256). Certainly, 'good enough' is ...