36 \ December 2018 \ http://www.phparch.comAdventures in Hashing
Security Corner
Conclusions
Hashing is a concept every devel-
oper will stumble across at some point
in their career. While the algorithms
involved require a lot of math educa-
tion to understand fully, when and
where and why to use them is knowl-
edge everyone should acquire. Hashing
helps provide safe, normalized keys
for CDNs, indexes, or caches. It also
provides security for passwords and
other sensitive information we must
store in a secure, non-reversible fashion
for future reference and comparison.
Learning why and when to hash is
straight-forward. Any senior developer
can point you in the right direction.
Learning how to use PHP’s native hash
functions is similar. Just reference the
PHP documentation^11 or similar guides
for the newer libsodium support.11 the PHP documentation:
http://php.net/book.hash
Learning how to implement a hash
function is beyond the scope of what
developers will typically have to do.
That being said, it’s usually a good use
of your time to have a functional under-
standing of what’s happening under the
hood. Set 7^12 of the aforementioned12 Set 7: https://cryptopals.com/sets/7Cryptopals challenges walks through
some of the less secure hashing algo-
rithms available. You can use this to
better understand what hashing does,
but remember to use native implemen-
tations in PHP in production.Eric is a seasoned web developer experienced with multiple
languages and platforms. He’s been working with PHP for
more than a decade and focuses his time on helping developers
get started and learn new skills with their tech of choice. Eric
works as a Tekton for Tozny, a privacy and security-focused
startup in the Portland area. You can reach out to him directly
via Twitter: @EricMannRelated Reading
- Keep Your Passwords Hashed and Salted by Leszek Krupiński.
September 2015. https://www.phparch.com/magazine/2015-2/september/ - PHP, meet Libsodium by Eric Mann. December 2017.
https://www.phparch.com/magazine/2017-2/december/ - Cryptography Best Practices in PHP by Enrico Zimuel. May 2017.
https://www.phparch.com/magazine/2017-2/may/
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