How to use PHP to encrypt and decrypt passwords?

Sometimes, we want to use PHP to encrypt and decrypt passwords.

In this article, we’ll look at how to use PHP to encrypt and decrypt passwords.

How to use PHP to encrypt and decrypt passwords?

To use PHP to encrypt and decrypt passwords, we can base64_encode and base64_decode.

For instance, we write

$key = 'password to (en/de)crypt';
$string = ' string to be encrypted '; 

$iv = mcrypt_create_iv(
    mcrypt_get_iv_size(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_128, MCRYPT_MODE_CBC),
    MCRYPT_DEV_URANDOM
);

$encrypted = base64_encode(
    $iv .
    mcrypt_encrypt(
        MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_128,
        hash('sha256', $key, true),
        $string,
        MCRYPT_MODE_CBC,
        $iv
    )
);

to call base64_encode with the mcrypt_encrypt method that hashes the password and then attach it to the initialization vector string $iv.

The password $string is in the 3rd argument.

And to do decryption, we call mcrypt_decrypt by writing

$data = base64_decode($encrypted);
$iv = substr($data, 0, mcrypt_get_iv_size(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_128, MCRYPT_MODE_CBC));

$decrypted = rtrim(
    mcrypt_decrypt(
        MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_128,
        hash('sha256', $key, true),
        substr($data, mcrypt_get_iv_size(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_128, MCRYPT_MODE_CBC)),
        MCRYPT_MODE_CBC,
        $iv
    ),
    "\0"
);

to call mcrypt_decrypt with the hash of the $key and the encrypted password string without the $iv that we get with substr($data, mcrypt_get_iv_size(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_128, MCRYPT_MODE_CBC)).

Conclusion

To use PHP to encrypt and decrypt passwords, we can base64_encode and base64_decode.