Laravel How the password is stored

Laravel makes secure password storage easy with its built-in hashing and salting features. Learn how to keep your user passwords safe with an example.

Password Storage in Laravel

Laravel uses the bcrypt hashing algorithm to store passwords. This algorithm is designed to be slow and expensive in terms of computing resources. The purpose is to make it difficult for hackers to guess the passwords. In Laravel, the make:auth command creates a migration that contains a users table with a password column. The password column is a VARCHAR with a length of 60 characters. The bcrypt algorithm is used to hash the passwords before storing them in the password column.

Below is an example of how a password is stored in the password column using the bcrypt algorithm:

$password = 'my secret password';
$hashedPassword = bcrypt($password);
echo $hashedPassword;
// Output: $2y$10$a/Q2Ew.GKfZG6HN/iitd/eVfzFm/K6/yM2F2QcO1Fjx.OoZPjXyXu

As you can see, the generated hash is significantly longer than the original password. This is a security measure so that if the database is compromised, the hacker will not be able to easily guess the original password. Also, since the bcrypt algorithm is designed to be slow, it makes it difficult for hackers to guess the passwords even if they have the hashed version of the passwords.

Laravel also provides a Hash facade which can be used to hash and verify passwords. The make:auth command also creates a RegisterController which uses the Hash facade to hash the passwords before storing them in the database. The Hash facade also provides methods to verify passwords, which is used when logging in to an application.

In summary, Laravel uses the bcrypt algorithm to store passwords in the database. The generated hash is significantly longer than the original password. The Hash facade provides methods to hash and verify passwords. This ensures that passwords are stored securely in the database.