0
$\begingroup$

Ideally, Hashids -: https://pypi.org/project/hashID/ are considered insecure and it is recommended that we should not use them for any sensitive functions. Though, is a HashId considered secure if we pass a very secure random salt to it? Or will it still be vulnerable? Can someone still guess / reverse engineer the original value?

$\endgroup$
2
  • $\begingroup$ Why do you think that way of encoding a hashed password is insecure? $\endgroup$
    – bk2204
    Jun 19 at 21:18
  • $\begingroup$ @bk2204 I was going through this thread github.com/vinkla/hashids/issues/48 and I wasn't very sure about HashIds. I have seen it being used at one of the places of my code. I believe it's secure, but I ain't sure about it and hence confirming. $\endgroup$
    – CryptoInfo
    Jun 20 at 1:37

1 Answer 1

1
$\begingroup$

The two projects you're discussing are both called "hash IDs", but they have very different security properties.

https://pypi.org/project/hashID/ identifies common password hashes by their format. Some, but not all, of those password hash formats are secure ways to store passwords, and can be used without a problem. For recommendations on which of those are acceptable, see crypt(5) on a modern Linux system. If you're not using crypt, the Argon2id is the current recommendation.

https://github.com/vinkla/hashids is not a cryptographically secure way to store secrets. First, the output size is too small, so brute force is a valid way to attack the data. Second, the algorithm it uses to encode values is likely easy to invert. If you need a cryptographically secure way to create IDs from a salt and an input, you can try HMAC with a cryptographically secure hash function, like SHA-256, using a 128-bit or greater salt as the key and the input as the message.

$\endgroup$

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.