Read as
Last updated: April 29, 2026
“How do we hash passwords?” is the most-asked question. The answer evolved.
“How do we hash passwords?” is the most-asked question. The answer evolved.
2026 password-hashing recommendations
- Argon2id — first choice; OWASP recommended
- bcrypt — second choice; widely supported
- scrypt — third; less library support
- PBKDF2 — only when FIPS 140 compliance forced
- NEVER — MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256/512 alone, plain hashing without salt
Argon2id parameters (OWASP 2026)
- Memory cost: 19 MiB minimum; 64 MiB preferred
- Iteration count: 2 minimum
- Parallelism: 1
Integrity hashing
- SHA-256, SHA-3-256 — for message integrity (when paired with HMAC or signature)
- BLAKE3 — faster modern alternative
- HMAC-SHA-256 — for keyed integrity
- NEVER use SHA-256 alone for “MAC” — use HMAC
🧠
Check your understanding
Module Quiz · 6 questions
Pass with 80%+ to mark this module complete. Unlimited retries. Each question shows an explanation.
Want this for your team?
Custom team training + practitioner advisory
Beyond the free academy — we run private workshops, vCISO advisory, and red-team exercises tailored to your stack. For Indian SMBs scaling past their first hire.
Book team training call
Replies in 4 working hrs · India-only · Senior consultants