[wp-hackers] Should password hashing portability be configurable?

[Harry Metcalfe]

No. In a nutshell:

No, it's not just MD5. It's PHPASS, which (for WordPress) uses MD5 as a 
cryptographic primitive. But there's more going on than that -- there 
are multiple rounds of hashing, plus a salt that's unique to each hashed 
password.

It's not a bad system. It's just not as good as bcrypt.

Harry


On 07/11/12 18:47, CloudPress Hosting wrote:
> To make sure I am understanding you are you saying account passwords are
> hashed with MD5? I would certainly hope not.
>
> On Wed, Nov 7, 2012 at 6:18 AM, Harry Metcalfe <harry at dxw.com> wrote:
>
>> I've been investigating switching the sites we host to bcrypt, rather than
>> MD5, which is the default. That MD5 is the default is regrettable but
>> understandable given WordPress's need to remain portable. I understand that
>> if the site was moved to a server without bcrypt support, those accounts
>> would no longer be accessible. However, if that is not a consideration, it
>> would surely be better for people to use bcrypt than MD5.
>>
>> I was going to make change on our sites by switching the portable flags in
>> wp_check_password and wp_hash_password to false, after moving those
>> functions into a plugin. This makes new passwords bcrypt and maintains
>> backwards compatibility for passwords hashed using MD5. However, it misses
>> the hashes which are created for password-protected posts, which happens in
>> a function that is not pluggable.
>>
>> I've therefore created a global $wp_hasher instance (without portability)
>> in a plugin, which I think should get called before WordPress has a chance
>> to make it.
>>
>> Questions:
>>
>> 1. Is that right? Is there a scenario where WordPress will make a
>>     wp_hasher before my mu plugin gets loaded, thereby preventing
>>     someone from logging in?
>> 2. Is it worth adding a WP_UNPORTABLE_PASSWORDS define so that people
>>     who want to make the switch can do so without having to fiddle with
>>     wp_hasher?
>>
>> Harry
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