Secure Password Storage & Credential Recovery
Learn how to hash passwords correctly, defend against credential attacks, and build secure password reset and account recovery flows.
Why Hashing Matters
Storing passwords in plaintext or with weak encoding means a single database breach exposes every user. Passwords must be stored as salted hashes using a slow, purpose-built algorithm.
This lesson covers correct hashing and secure recovery flows.
Hash, Do Not Encrypt
Passwords should be hashed, not encrypted. Encryption is reversible; if the key leaks, all passwords are exposed. Hashing is one-way: you verify by hashing the input and comparing.
- Never use reversible encryption for passwords
- Never use fast hashes like MD5 or SHA-1 alone
All lessons in this course
- Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
- OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect
- JWT Security & Best Practices
- Secure Password Storage & Credential Recovery