Bcrypt Laravel - PHP

If you're a PHP developer looking for a secure way to hash passwords in your Laravel application, Bcrypt is a great option. In this article, we'll discuss what Bcrypt is and how to use it in PHP and Laravel.

What is Bcrypt?

Bcrypt is a password hashing function that is designed to be slow and computationally intensive. This makes it difficult for hackers to brute-force their way into user accounts, as Bcrypt can take several seconds to compute a single hash. Bcrypt also has a built-in salt, which adds an additional layer of security by making it more difficult for hackers to use precomputed hash tables to crack passwords.

How to Use Bcrypt in PHP

Using Bcrypt in PHP is straightforward. You can use the password_hash function to hash a password with Bcrypt, like this:

$password = "myPassword";
$hashedPassword = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_BCRYPT);

The password_hash function will return a hashed version of the password, which you can store in your database. When a user logs in, you can use the password_verify function to check the hashed password against the user's input, like this:

$inputPassword = "myPassword";
if (password_verify($inputPassword, $hashedPassword)) {
    // Password is correct
} else {
    // Password is incorrect
}

This will return true if the input password matches the hashed password, and false otherwise.

How to Use Bcrypt in Laravel

Laravel makes it even easier to use Bcrypt, as it has built-in support for password hashing and verification. In Laravel, you can use the bcrypt function to hash a password, like this:

$password = "myPassword";
$hashedPassword = bcrypt($password);

To verify a password, you can use the Hash::check function, like this:

$inputPassword = "myPassword";
if (Hash::check($inputPassword, $hashedPassword)) {
    // Password is correct
} else {
    // Password is incorrect
}

Like the password_verify function, Hash::check will return true if the input password matches the hashed password, and false otherwise.

Conclusion

Bcrypt is a great option for password hashing in PHP and Laravel. It provides strong security by being slow and computationally intensive, and it has a built-in salt to make it more difficult for hackers to crack passwords. When using Bcrypt, always remember to hash passwords as early as possible in your application's workflow, and to use a strong salt for additional security.