What is the field "SALT" for in the customer database?

[hebcat]

Hi all,

I'm going to be importing an existing database of customers (previously an Actinic one so I'm having to do a lot of work to make it compatible).

Can anyone tell me what the "Salt" column is for and if it's required?

Thanks

Cat

[vokf]

Hi Cat,

"Salt" is used by MD5 to made the hash more secure.

MD5 is an established algorithm used to store passwords.

Essentially, if you simply run MD5 on a value (normally a password) to get a hash value (a representation of the original value/password in a new form), its fairly easy to get the same hash value from a different password. MD5 is bi-directional, so you can get back to the original password from a hash value. This is also its weekness.

"Salt" is generally a small selection of random characters that are appended to the password before the MD5 function is run. This way, the Salt would need to be known.

I found a much better explanation here;

http://www.pixel2life.com/publish/tutorial...ord_encryption/

Jason

[hebcat]

Thanks very much, Jason!