this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
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Explain Like I'm Five

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ELI5: How does hashing/encryption algorithms keep your password safe? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 day ago by Gonzako@lemmy.world to c/explainlikeimfive@lemmy.world
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I know you gotta store the passwords hashed but doesn't that just move the goalposts? How come someone can't use the hashed end result to get into the service it was used for?

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[–] athairmor@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Because, the hashing function is used before comparing.

  • Stored hash is “5f4dcc3b5aa765d61d8327deb882cf99”,
  • user sends “password”,
  • system runs the hash on “password” and gets “5f4dcc3b5aa765d61d8327deb882cf99”,
  • it matches, access is granted.

If the user sends “5f4dcc3b5aa765d61d8327deb882cf99” the system runs the hash on that and gets “696d29e0940a4957748fe3fc9efd22a3”. Those don’t match. No access.