crypt-dev - Re: Simplified PHP Password Hashing

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Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2012 15:00:55 +0400
From: Solar Designer <solar@...nwall.com>
To: crypt-dev@...ts.openwall.com
Subject: Re: Simplified PHP Password Hashing

Hi Anthony, all -

On Tue, Jun 26, 2012 at 11:30:21AM -0400, Anthony Ferrara wrote:
> I've recently been working on an RFC to add a simplified PHP password
> hashing API to PHP's core. I was hoping for some feedback, and a code
> review of the implementation.
> 
> https://wiki.php.net/rfc/password_hash
> 
> https://github.com/ircmaxell/php-src/blob/hash_password/ext/standard/password.c
> 
> It's still a work in progress, but I wanted to reach out for input and
> review prior to moving too far forward.

Thanks.  I've just provided a relevant reply here:

http://news.php.net/php.internals/60977

Unfortunately, I don't expect to have much time for this during the
summer.  If you're not in much of a hurry to include this in PHP, then
I'd be happy to review and discuss it with you later.

On a related note, I think that your PHP-PasswordLib has too much stuff
in it:

https://github.com/ircmaxell/PHP-PasswordLib

What immediately caught my attention is this:

"Secure Random Number/String Generation
[...]
The mixing function is also dependent upon the strength required. For
non-cryptographic numbers, a simple XOR mixing function is used (for
speed). As strength requirements increase, it will use a SHA512 based
mixing function, then a DES based mixing function and finally an AES-128
based mixing function at "High" strength."

I see no reason to support these four modes instead of just one, e.g.
based on SHA-512.  Just how is DES or AES any better for this purpose?
Perhaps leave the mode based on SHA-512 only.  (I haven't looked at the
code yet, though.)

I do realize that this is a separate project, but I am concerned that
you might similarly provide too much stuff via your new API right away.
The API should be generic enough that future stuff would be likely to
fit it well, but there shouldn't be unneeded stuff available via it now
just to provide more examples.

Thanks,

Alexander

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