What Is Salting: Strengthening Password Security Against Modern Attacks

Passwords remain one of the most common methods for authentication, but they are also one of the weakest links in modern data security. When identical passwords are reused across multiple accounts or stored in insecure formats, attackers can exploit vulnerabilities using brute force attacks, rainbow table attacks, or dictionary attacks.

That’s why techniques such as password hashing and password salting have become critical for securely storing passwords. By adding random data to each password instance and transforming it with a hashing algorithm, organizations make it much harder for attackers to crack passwords, even if stolen password hashes are exposed.

For a primer on why passwords alone are failing, see Everykey’s guide to passkeys.

Salting is the process of adding random characters, also called a random string, to a user’s password before applying the hash function.

The salt ensures that even identical passwords produce different hash values. Without salting, two users with the same password would generate the same hash, creating identical hashes in the password database. With salting, each password instance is unique, making rainbow table attacks and hash table attacks much less effective.

Salting prevents attackers from using precomputed tables to match stolen hashes. Instead, they must brute force each salted password separately, which is computationally expensive and time-consuming.

For a clear explanation, NIST provides guidance on salting in its Digital Identity Guidelines.

Password hashing is the process of converting a user’s password into a fixed length string using a cryptographic hash function.

Unlike encryption, which converts data using an encryption key and can be reversed with a private key, hashing is a one-way function. Once the hash output is created, the original password cannot be directly decrypted.

Hashing provides password protection by securely storing passwords in the form of stored hashes rather than plain text. However, if unsalted passwords are hashed, attackers can use hash tables or rainbow tables to quickly find possible password combinations that match the stored hash.

For a deeper dive, see OWASP’s password storage guidelines.

Password salting adds another layer of protection to password security.

Each password is combined with a unique salt before the hashing process. This ensures that even common passwords, like “123456” or “password,” result in unique salted passwords.

For example:

Even though the original password is the same, the salted password hashes are different. This prevents identical hashes from appearing in the database.

More details can be found in Wikipedia’s article on salt in cryptography.

One of the main risks of weak password storage is brute force attacks. Attackers try every possible password combination until the correct one is found.

When passwords are hashed without salting, brute force attacks become more efficient because multiple users with identical passwords will produce the same hash. Salting hashes increases password complexity, making brute force far less practical.

For real-world context, check out Everykey’s coverage of phishing and brute force risks.

Hashing and salting are most effective when combined.

This combination reduces the risk of rainbow table attacks, dictionary attacks, and other password attacks that exploit identical hashes or precomputed tables.

Modern password management systems use hashing and salting with strong hashing algorithms to protect against breaches.

The strength of password hashing depends on the chosen hashing algorithm.

Some commonly used hashing algorithms include:

For more, read the Argon2 specification.

Weak hashing algorithms may create vulnerabilities, as they generate predictable hash values or can be computed quickly. Choosing the right hashing algorithm is essential for secure password storage.

A dictionary attack uses a predefined list of common passwords and words to crack password hashes.

If unsalted passwords are stored, attackers can quickly match stored hashes with their dictionary of precomputed hashes. Adding random data through salting ensures that dictionary attacks become less effective, as each password must be computed individually.

For an overview, see Kaspersky’s guide to dictionary attacks.

So how does password salting work in practice?

When the user logs in, the system retrieves the salt, combines it with the entered password, and re-runs the hashing process. If the new hash matches the stored hash, the password is verified.

This approach securely stores passwords while allowing systems to verify data integrity without storing the original password.

While hashing is one-way, encryption uses an encryption key.

Encryption protects data by allowing it to be decrypted later, while hashing protects passwords by making decryption impossible. For password storage, hashing and salting are more appropriate than symmetric or asymmetric encryption.

Still, encryption algorithms play a role in broader data security, such as protecting sensitive information in transit between servers. See Cloudflare’s guide to encryption.

Attackers often combine brute force with rainbow tables to accelerate password cracking.

Rainbow table attacks use precomputed tables of hash values for common passwords. When unsalted hashes are stolen, attackers can quickly match them against rainbow tables to find the original password.

By adding a unique salt to each password, rainbow tables become ineffective, as attackers would need to generate new tables for every unique salt.

Learn more about rainbow tables in this explanation from TechTarget.

There are many types of password attacks beyond brute force and dictionary methods:

Salting hashes and using strong password hashing algorithms reduce these vulnerabilities.

Strong password management is essential for modern data security.

For practical steps, see Everykey’s breakdown of password managers.

Passwords remain a central part of authentication, but they are also highly vulnerable. Techniques like password hashing and password salting are essential for securely storing passwords and preventing stolen password hashes from being exploited.

By using random data, hashing algorithms, and proper password management practices, organizations can protect data integrity, verify user identities, and reduce risks from brute force attacks, rainbow table attacks, and dictionary attacks.

Salting and hashing together form the foundation of password security. Without them, identical passwords produce identical hashes, creating serious vulnerabilities. With them, each password instance becomes unique, making it far more difficult for attackers to succeed.

Salting ensures that even if multiple users choose the same password, their hashes will be different. This prevents attackers from exploiting identical hashes in a database.

Hashing is a one-way process that verifies data integrity, while encryption converts data using an encryption key and can be reversed with the correct key.

No, salts make rainbow tables ineffective because each salted password produces a unique hash, requiring attackers to compute new tables for every salt.

Algorithms like bcrypt, scrypt, and Argon2 are recommended because they include salting and are designed to resist brute force attacks.

Unsalted hashes are highly vulnerable. Attackers can use dictionary attacks and rainbow tables to crack them quickly.