Tips for safeguarding your passwords across diverse authentication methods

Exploring a new project idea, I am interested in supporting the SASL Mechanisms for authentication, particularly PLAIN and DIGEST-MD5.

I am curious about how to securely store users' passwords when implementing these two authentication methods.

When dealing with only PLAIN auth, storing passwords using bcrypt and comparing them with bcrypt_compare function is straightforward.

However, securing passwords becomes more complex when incorporating DIGEST-MD5. Should I store the complete calculated response and use it for both DIGEST-MD5 and PLAIN authentication? Or is there a better approach?

//Edit: Although this project currently falls under the "fun" category, there is potential for it to become a serious project in the future. Therefore, I want to maintain high security standards even if it started as a fun endeavor.

javascriptsecurityencryptionsasl

Answer №1

The specifications outlined in the DIGEST-MD5 protocol provide guidance on what information should be stored by a server for authentication purposes:

Section 3.9 - Storing passwords

In order to authenticate using Digest authentication, the authenticating agent (typically the server) must retain certain data derived from the user's credentials within a "password file" associated with a specific realm. This file may include pairs of username and 

H({
  username-value,    ":", realm-value, ":", passwd })
, which allow for the computation of H(A1) as explained earlier without revealing the actual password.

Therefore, the only information required to store for DIGEST-MD5 is 

H({ username-value, ":", realm-value, ":", passwd })
.

Additionally, you have the option to store a bcrypt hash separately for use in PLAIN authentication, or simply utilize the DIGEST-MD5 value. By storing distinct values, it becomes feasible for users to deactivate DIGEST-MD5 authentication selectively, allowing for safe removal of potentially vulnerable information from the database for those particular users.

Answer №2

Make sure to always store passwords securely by hashing them instead of storing them in plain text. By comparing the hash values, you can verify the passwords without compromising security.

Here is a simple way to create a strong hash:

function hash_password($password, $nonce) {
  global $site_key;
  return hash_hmac('sha512', $password . $nonce, $site_key);
}

For more information on secure hashing and salting for PHP passwords, check out this resource.

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