Question

I have this query in sql server 2000:

select pwdencrypt('AAAA') 

which outputs an encrypted string of ‘AAAA’:

 0x0100CF465B7B12625EF019E157120D58DD46569AC7BF4118455D12625EF019E157120D58DD46569AC7BF4118455D 

How can I convert (decrypt) the output from its origin (which is ‘AAAA’)?

Answer 1

I believe pwdencrypt is using a hash so you cannot really reverse the hashed string – the algorithm is designed so it’s impossible.

If you are verifying the password that a user entered the usual technique is to hash it and then compare it to the hashed version in the database.

This is how you could verify a usered entered table

SELECT password_field FROM mytable WHERE password_field=pwdencrypt(userEnteredValue) 

Replace userEnteredValue with (big surprise) the value that the user entered 🙂