How to encrypt password in PHP

In this article, you will learn different ways to encrypt passwords using PHP. Generally, data is most vulnerable when it is being moved from one location to another. Encryption is the process through which information is encoded so it stays hidden from unauthorised users. It ensures private and sensitive data and can improve the security of communication between client apps and servers. Today, almost every application need password encryption technique to protect the sensitive information of its users.

PHP provides a range of different encryption methods. PHP has a hash algorithm to encrypt the password. The most commonly used functions for password encrypting are md5(), crypt() and password_hash().

Suppose we have the registration form data containing username and password in the POST. If we insert the same password as received in the POST into the database, this is not the secure way. If the database falls into the wrong hands, then they can misuse the data.

Encrypting password using md5()

MD5 hashing algorithm generates a 32-characters string (hash hexadecimal number) for any word or phrase we give in the input. This is a one-way encryption algorithm. The password encrypted with this algorithm can never be decrypted. The md5 is the most commonly used encryption method. The md5() function is used to calculate the md5 hash of a string. The syntax of the md5() function is -

md5(string,raw)

Here, the string is the string to be encrypted, and row is an optional parameter. It specifies the output format, which can either be TRUE or FALSE. The default is FALSE.

The given code encrypts the password value and stores it in the database.


 <?php
 $conn = new mysqli('hostname', 'username', 'password', 'databasename');
 $pwd = $_POST['password'];
 $encrypted_pwd = md5($pwd);
 $username = $_POST['username']; 
 $insert ="INSERT into an_users (id, username, password) 
 VALUES  ('', '$username', '$encrypted_pwd')";
 if($conn->query($insert)){
  echo 'Data inserted successfully';
 }
 else{
  echo 'Error '.$conn->error;  
 }
?>

Encrypting password using crypt()

The crypt() function returns a hashed string using salt. This method generates a weak password without salt. It takes a second parameter for the salt, which is an optional parameter. The salt is a formatted string that tells the crypt() method which algorithm is used to do the hashing. It returns a hashed string using DES, Blowfish, or MD5 algorithms. Make sure to specify a strong enough salt for better security.

Syntax -

crypt($string, $salt);

There are many salt constants, but here we have used CRYPT_MD5. This generates a 12 characters salt.

<?php
  $conn = new mysqli('hostname', 'username', 'password', 'databasename');
  $pwd = $_POST['password'];
  if(CRYPT_MD5 == 1) {
      $encrypted_pwd = crypt($pwd, '$12$hrd$reer');
  }
  $username = $_POST['username'];
  $insert = "INSERT INTO  an_users (id, username, password) 
		  VALUES('', '$username', '$encrypted_pwd')";
  if($conn->query($insert)){
	echo 'Data inserted successfully';
  }
  else{
	echo 'Error '.$conn->error;  
  }
?>

Encrypting password using password_hash()

The password_hash() method creates a new password hash using a strong one-way hashing algorithm. It means that the only way to validate a hashed output is to pass the original value to the hashing algorithm and compare the results. This makes hashing perfect for storing user passwords. The password_hash() function is compatible with the crypt() function. It is implemented in PHP 5.1. The syntax of password_hash() is -

password_hash(string, algorithm, options)

Here, string is the string to be encrypted, algorithm denotes the algorithm to use when hashing the password and options is an associative array containing options.

The given code encrypts the password value using password_hash() and stores it in the database.

<?php
// Database connection
 $conn = new mysqli('hostname', 'username', 'password', 'databasename');

 $pwd = $_POST['password'];

// hash it with PASSWORD_DEFAULT
$hash = password_hash($pwd,  
          PASSWORD_DEFAULT); 
$username = $_POST['username']; 

$insert ="INSERT into an_users (id, username, password) 
 VALUES  ('', '$username', '$hash')";

if($conn->query($insert)){
  echo 'Data inserted successfully';
}
 else{
  echo 'Error '.$conn->error;  
}
?>

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