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Q&A Should a salt be stored in the same database as the hash?

With bcrypt, the salt is stored in the same string as the hash. This is done so that you have everything you need to get that hash identifier if you know the password.[1] Wikipedia breaks down the ...

posted 9mo ago by Michael‭

Answer
#1: Initial revision by user avatar Michael‭ · 2024-01-26T15:15:11Z (9 months ago)
With **bcrypt,** the salt is stored **in the same _string_** as the hash. This is done so that you have everything you need to get that hash identifier if you know the password.[^pepper] Wikipedia [breaks down the format][wiki]:

> ## Description
> The input to the bcrypt function is the password string (up to 72 bytes), a numeric cost, and a 16-byte (128-bit) salt value. The salt is typically a random value. The bcrypt function uses these inputs to compute a 24-byte (192-bit) hash. The final output of the bcrypt function is a string of the form:
>
> ```none
> $2<a/b/x/y>$[cost]$[22 character salt][31 character hash]
> ```
>
> For example, with input password `abc123xyz`, cost `12`, and a random salt, the output of bcrypt is the string
>
> ```none
> $2a$12$R9h/cIPz0gi.URNNX3kh2OPST9/PgBkqquzi.Ss7KIUgO2t0jWMUW
> \__/\_/\____________________/\_____________________________/
> Alg Cost      Salt                        Hash
> ```
>
> Where:
> 
> - `$2a$`: The hash algorithm identifier (bcrypt)
> - `12`: Input cost (2<sup>12</sup> i.e. 4096 rounds)
> - `R9h/cIPz0gi.URNNX3kh2O`: A base-64 encoding of the input salt
> - `PST9/PgBkqquzi.Ss7KIUgO2t0jWMUW`: A base-64 encoding of the first 23 bytes of the computed 24 byte hash
>
> The base-64 encoding in bcrypt uses the table `./ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789`, which differs from [RFC 4648][] Base64 encoding.

[^pepper]: Or password + pepper, if you do that.

[wiki]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bcrypt#Description
[rfc 4648]: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4648