Python Language Tutorial => Secure Password Hashing

Example

The PBKDF2 algorithm exposed by hashlib module can be used to perform secure password hashing. While this algorithm cannot prevent brute-force attacks in order to recover the original password from the stored hash, it makes such attacks very expensive.

import hashlib
import os

salt = os.urandom(16)
hash = hashlib.pbkdf2_hmac('sha256', b'password', salt, 100000)

PBKDF2 can work with any digest algorithm, the above example uses SHA256 which is usually recommended. The random salt should be stored along with the hashed password, you will need it again in order to compare an entered password to the stored hash. It is essential that each password is hashed with a different salt. As to the number of rounds, it is recommended to set it as high as possible for your application.

If you want the result in hexadecimal, you can use the binascii module:

import binascii
hexhash = binascii.hexlify(hash)

Note: While PBKDF2 isn't bad, bcrypt and especially scrypt are considered stronger against brute-force attacks. Neither is part of the Python standard library at the moment.

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Python Language Security and Cryptography Secure Password Hashing

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