How has password hashing (PBKDF2, etc

Password hashing is an essential technique used to securely store passwords in databases. By employing algorithms like PBKDF2, bcrypt, or Argon2, developers can enhance the security of user credentials by transforming them into a fixed-length format that cannot be easily reversed. This approach mitigates the risks associated with data breaches, ensuring that even if the hashed passwords are compromised, they remain secure and non-readable.

PBKDF2 stands for Password-Based Key Derivation Function 2 and is designed to be computationally intensive, making brute-force attacks significantly harder. It uses a salt (random data) to protect against rainbow table attacks, and multiple iterations to increase the time required to compute each hash.

$password = 'user-password'; $salt = bin2hex(random_bytes(16)); // Generate a random salt $hash = hash_pbkdf2('sha256', $password, $salt, 10000); // Hash the password // Store $salt and $hash in the database

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