MD5 Passwords

It's very easy to create MD5 passwords with Python-

You just:

   1 import hashlib
   2 
   3 key_string = raw_input( "Key to turn into an MD5 password? " )
   4 
   5 print hashlib.md5( key_string ).hexdigest()

ex: "robots" turns into "27f5e15b6af3223f1176293cd015771d"

The "hexdigest" form is the form you frequently find used in databases and in online forums.

Salting

A good idea is to include a 'salt' with the hash as well, which will prevent people using a dictionary with md5 hashes of common passwords. When you check a password, just add the salt to the front of the password and hash it. The salt can be any random string.

Something like this:

   1 import hashlib
   2 
   3 key_string = "SecretPassword"
   4 salt = "1Ha7"
   5 
   6 hash = hashlib.md5( salt + key_string ).hexdigest()
   7 print "%s:%s" % (salt, hash) # Store these

AnthonyBriggs

See Also

• an on-line MD5 generator - create MD5 values from keys, online

Discussion