Web Security: Common Vulnerabilities And Their Mitigation - All about passwords-Storage

The video tutorial covers essential aspects of password storage for website developers, emphasizing the importance of not storing passwords in plain text due to security risks. It explains the concepts of hashing and encryption, highlighting their differences and the irreversible nature of hashes. The tutorial provides a practical example of implementing secure password storage using SHA-1 hashing in a PHP environment, including best practices for form input handling and error management.

Why should passwords never be stored in plain text?

• It is a requirement by law.

• It allows for faster login times.

• It poses a significant security risk.

• It makes them easier to remember.

What is a key characteristic of a hashing algorithm?

• It requires a lot of computational power.

• It is slower than encryption.

• It can be reversed to get the original data.

• It produces a fixed-length output.

Which principle is NOT essential for a good hashing algorithm?

• Easy to generate a hash.

• Quick to compute.

• Reversible to get the original message.

• Unique hash for different messages.

What is the main difference between hashing and encryption?

• Hashing requires a key, encryption does not.

• Hashing is slower than encryption.

• Hashing is one-way, encryption is two-way.

• Hashing is reversible, encryption is not.

In what scenario would you use encryption over hashing?

• When you want to speed up data processing.

• When you want to reduce data size.

• When you need to retrieve the original data.

• When you need to store passwords securely.

What is a good practice when setting up a signup form?

• Store passwords in plain text.

• Use different names in the form and database.

• Allow unlimited input length.

• Use the same names in the form and database.

Why is it important to specify a maximum length for input fields?

• To comply with legal requirements.

• To ensure faster data processing.

• To prevent database overflow.

• To make the form look neat.

What is the purpose of using a prepared statement in database operations?

• To prevent SQL injection attacks.

• To speed up the database connection.

• To make the code more readable.

• To store data in plain text.

What should be done if an error occurs while adding a user to the database?

• Display a generic error message to the user.

• Store the error in a log file.

• Restart the database connection.

• Ignore the error and continue.

What is a common mistake made by startups regarding password storage?

• Hashing passwords with SHA-256.

• Storing passwords in plain text.

• Using prepared statements for database operations.

• Using too strong encryption.