Question

I’ve got the following PHP code which is used for registering to a website. I’m trying to hash the passwords for security but whenever I submit a dummy registration the passwords are not hashed in phpMyAdmin. They appear normal. Here is my code:

<?php

//get the values from the form
$Name = $_POST['name'];
$Username = $_POST['username'];
$Password = $_POST['password'];
$RepeatPassword = $_POST['repeatpassword'];

//encrypt the passwords
md5($Password);
md5($RepeatPassword);

//query the database
$query = "INSERT INTO users VALUES ('', '$Name', '$Username', '$Password')";

if (!mysql_query($query)) {

die('Error ' . mysql_error() . ' in query ' . $query);
} 

//check passwords match
if ($Password !== $RepeatPassword) {
echo "Your passwords do not match. <a href='login.php'>Return to login page</a>";

}

//check to see if fields are blank
if ($Name=="") {
echo "Name is a required field. <a href='login.php'>Return to login page</a>";
}

else if ($Username=="") {
echo "Username is a required field. <a href='login.php'>Return to login page</a>"; 
}

else if ($Password=="") {
echo "Password is a required field. <a href='login.php'>Return to login page</a>";
}

else if ($RepeatPassword=="") {
    echo "Repeat Password is a required field. <a href='login.php'>Return to login page</a>";
}

else {
    $_SESSION["message"] = "You have successfully registered! Please login using your username and password.";
    header("Location: login.php");
}
?>

The tutorials I have read online have all said to do it as per the above. I’ve tried putting the two lines of md5 code in numerous places but to no avail.

Answer 1

md5($Password);
md5($RepeatPassword);

This code basically does nothing. You want:

$Password = md5($Password);
$RepeatPassword = md5($RepeatPassword);

But ultimately, MD5 doesn’t do much for security. Consider bcrypt, stop using the mysql_* functions, and start learning about SQL injection attacks.