How to encrypt and decrypt passwords in a database

[kiranbabu]

Any one help me how to encrypt and decrypt passwords.And the password field is in database(mysql database) how to encrypt and decrypt that password saved in database.

[Dormilich]

if you need password protection (like save a pw in a db non-human-readable) go for the pw’s hash value (hash()) using a decend method (sha256, ripemd, …). for encryption/decryption using keys try the OpenSSL or Mcrypt functions.

[Dheeraj Joshi]

And do not forget to do salting.

Regards
Dheeraj Joshi

[Markus]

Check out MySQL's aggregate (en|de)crypt functions.

[conseguenza]

If you use .NET for your application try to use Bonnie.NET at http://www.we-coffee.com/bonnie.aspx. It's a free dll that manages all cryptographic need.

To protect your password, probably the best choice is to use hash functions. If someone stoles your password an hash cannot be rever to the initial value. An attacker could try a sort of brute force attack not directly with the passwords use to discovery your password but hashing them first, making the hash not safe. To avoid this problem try to use keyed hash function (for example HMACSHA1). Bonnie.NET let you to do so.