How Salt Functions

Salt Generation: When a user registers or updates their password, a distinct salt is created. This salt is generally a randomly generated string, often produced using a cryptographically secure random number generator.

Password Hashing: The user’s password is combined with the salt and processed through a hashing algorithm, like bcrypt. The salt is integrated into this hashing method, making it considerably more challenging to reverse the hash and retrieve the original password.

Storage: Instead of storing the plain-text password, the resulting hash and the salt are saved in the database.

Benefits of Implementing Salt

Enhanced Security: By adding salt, it becomes significantly more difficult for attackers to decipher hashed passwords through brute-force or rainbow table methods. The extra layer of complexity introduced by salt makes it computationally intensive to produce identical hashes for different passwords.

Defense Against Precomputed Attacks: Salt offers protection against precomputed attacks, where hackers compile extensive databases of pre-hashed passwords. With a unique salt for each password, attackers cannot leverage precomputed hashes to crack user passwords.

Adherence to Best Practices: Utilizing salt is recognized as a best practice for password security and is advocated by industry standards and cybersecurity professionals.

Example of Salt Implementation in Node.js

const bcrypt = require('bcrypt');

async function hashPassword(password) {

const salt = await bcrypt.genSalt(10);

const hashedPassword = await bcrypt.hash(password, salt);

return hashedPassword;

}

In the code snippet above, the bcrypt.genSalt() function generates a random salt, which is then utilized alongside the password to produce a secure hash using the bcrypt.hash() function.