Password Salt

Definitions

1. A unique random value added to a password before hashing so identical passwords do not produce identical stored hashes and precomputed cracking tables become less effective. Proper salts must be unique per password record and combined with slow password hashing algorithms to matter in practice.

   In plain English: A random value added before hashing a password to make stored hashes harder to crack.

   Example: "The breach was worse because the old system stored hashes without a password salt, making offline cracking much easier."

Related Terms

• Key Derivation Function
• Cryptographic Hash
• Encryption at Rest
• Credential Store
• Disk Forensics
• Hash Cracking
• Message Digest
• Password Entropy
• Password Storage
• Bucket