How can I hash a password in Java?

I need to hash passwords for storage in a database. How can I do this in Java?

I was hoping to take the plain text password, add a random salt, then store the salt and the hashed password in the database.

Then when a user wanted to log in, I could take their submitted password, add the random salt from their account information, hash it and see if it equates to the stored hash password with their account information.

Answer

You can actually use a facility built in to the Java runtime to do this. The SunJCE in Java 6 supports PBKDF2, which is a good algorithm to use for password hashing.

byte[] salt = new byte[16];
random.nextBytes(salt);
KeySpec spec = new PBEKeySpec("password".toCharArray(), salt, 65536, 128);
SecretKeyFactory f = SecretKeyFactory.getInstance("PBKDF2WithHmacSHA1");
byte[] hash = f.generateSecret(spec).getEncoded();

Base64.Encoder enc = Base64.getEncoder();
System.out.printf("salt: %s%n", enc.encodeToString(salt));
System.out.printf("hash: %s%n", enc.encodeToString(hash));

Here's a utility class that you can use for PBKDF2 password authentication:

import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;
import java.security.SecureRandom;
import java.security.spec.InvalidKeySpecException;

import java.security.spec.KeySpec;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Base64;
import java.util.regex.Matcher;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;

import javax.crypto.SecretKeyFactory;
import javax.crypto.spec.PBEKeySpec;

/**

 * Hash passwords for storage, and test passwords against password tokens.
 * 
 * Instances of this class can be used concurrently by multiple threads.
 *  
 * @author erickson
 * @see StackOverflow
 */
public final class PasswordAuthentication
{


  /**
   * Each token produced by this class uses this identifier as a prefix.
   */
  public static final String ID = "$31$";

  /**
   * The minimum recommended cost, used by default
   */
  public static final int DEFAULT_COST = 16;


  private static final String ALGORITHM = "PBKDF2WithHmacSHA1";

  private static final int SIZE = 128;

  private static final Pattern layout = Pattern.compile("\\$31\\$(\\d\\d?)\\$(.{43})");

  private final SecureRandom random;

  private final int cost;


  public PasswordAuthentication()
  {
    this(DEFAULT_COST);
  }

  /**
   * Create a password manager with a specified cost
   * 
   * @param cost the exponential computational cost of hashing a password, 0 to 30
   */

  public PasswordAuthentication(int cost)
  {
    iterations(cost); /* Validate cost */
    this.cost = cost;
    this.random = new SecureRandom();
  }

  private static int iterations(int cost)
  {
    if ((cost < 0) || (cost > 30))

      throw new IllegalArgumentException("cost: " + cost);
    return 1 << cost;
  }

  /**
   * Hash a password for storage.
   * 
   * @return a secure authentication token to be stored for later authentication 
   */
  public String hash(char[] password)

  {
    byte[] salt = new byte[SIZE / 8];
    random.nextBytes(salt);
    byte[] dk = pbkdf2(password, salt, 1 << cost);
    byte[] hash = new byte[salt.length + dk.length];
    System.arraycopy(salt, 0, hash, 0, salt.length);
    System.arraycopy(dk, 0, hash, salt.length, dk.length);
    Base64.Encoder enc = Base64.getUrlEncoder().withoutPadding();
    return ID + cost + '$' + enc.encodeToString(hash);
  }


  /**
   * Authenticate with a password and a stored password token.
   * 
   * @return true if the password and token match
   */
  public boolean authenticate(char[] password, String token)
  {
    Matcher m = layout.matcher(token);
    if (!m.matches())

      throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid token format");
    int iterations = iterations(Integer.parseInt(m.group(1)));
    byte[] hash = Base64.getUrlDecoder().decode(m.group(2));
    byte[] salt = Arrays.copyOfRange(hash, 0, SIZE / 8);
    byte[] check = pbkdf2(password, salt, iterations);
    int zero = 0;
    for (int idx = 0; idx < check.length; ++idx)
      zero |= hash[salt.length + idx] ^ check[idx];
    return zero == 0;
  }


  private static byte[] pbkdf2(char[] password, byte[] salt, int iterations)
  {
    KeySpec spec = new PBEKeySpec(password, salt, iterations, SIZE);
    try {
      SecretKeyFactory f = SecretKeyFactory.getInstance(ALGORITHM);
      return f.generateSecret(spec).getEncoded();
    }
    catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException ex) {
      throw new IllegalStateException("Missing algorithm: " + ALGORITHM, ex);

    }
    catch (InvalidKeySpecException ex) {
      throw new IllegalStateException("Invalid SecretKeyFactory", ex);
    }
  }

  /**
   * Hash a password in an immutable {@code String}. 
   * 
   * 
Passwords should be stored in a {@code char[]} so that it can be filled 

   * with zeros after use instead of lingering on the heap and elsewhere.
   * 
   * @deprecated Use {@link #hash(char[])} instead
   */
  @Deprecated
  public String hash(String password)
  {
    return hash(password.toCharArray());
  }


  /**
   * Authenticate with a password in an immutable {@code String} and a stored 
   * password token. 
   * 
   * @deprecated Use {@link #authenticate(char[],String)} instead.
   * @see #hash(String)
   */
  @Deprecated
  public boolean authenticate(String password, String token)
  {

    return authenticate(password.toCharArray(), token);
  }

}