Salting
Salting is a security technique used in cryptography and password storage to add random data (called a salt) to input before hashing, making it more resistant to attacks like rainbow tables and brute-force attempts. It ensures that identical passwords produce different hash values, enhancing security by preventing precomputed attacks and slowing down password cracking. This method is commonly applied in systems that store user credentials, such as web applications and authentication services.
Developers should learn and use salting when implementing password storage or any system requiring secure hashing to protect sensitive data from common attacks. It is essential in scenarios like user authentication in web apps, database security, and compliance with security standards (e.g., OWASP guidelines), as it mitigates risks from data breaches by making hashed passwords harder to reverse-engineer. Without salting, systems are vulnerable to attacks that exploit hash collisions and precomputed tables.