hebcat Posted April 17, 2010 Share Posted April 17, 2010 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vokf Posted April 17, 2010 Share Posted April 17, 2010 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hebcat Posted April 19, 2010 Author Share Posted April 19, 2010 Thanks very much, Jason! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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