Password Hashing (bcrypt)

Summary

Never store passwords in plain text — bcrypt is a slow, salted hashing algorithm specifically designed to make brute-forcing stolen password hashes impractical.

• 1Hash a password with bcrypt and verify a login attempt against the stored hash.
• 2Learn why bcrypt is deliberately slow, unlike a fast hash like SHA-256.
• 3Understand salting and why it prevents rainbow-table attacks.