Why “Decrypting” a Password Is the Wrong Word

📰 Medium · Cybersecurity

Learn why decrypting a password is the wrong word and how hashing, salt, and pepper secure passwords

intermediate Published 19 Jun 2026

Action Steps

Understand the difference between encryption and hashing
Implement salt and pepper in password storage
Use a secure hashing algorithm like Argon2 or PBKDF2
Avoid using broken hashing algorithms like SHA-256 for password storage
Test and evaluate password storage security using tools like password crackers

Who Needs to Know This

Security engineers and developers can benefit from understanding the fundamentals of password storage and security to protect user data

Key Insight

💡 Hashing is a one-way process, making it impossible to 'decrypt' a password, and salt and pepper add an extra layer of security

Key Takeaways

Learn why decrypting a password is the wrong word and how hashing, salt, and pepper secure passwords

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Title: Why “Decrypting” a Password Is the Wrong Word

URL Source: https://medium.com/@robertosolaridev/why-decrypting-a-password-is-the-wrong-word-30031ef27b0a?source=rss------cybersecurity-5

Published Time: 2026-06-19T10:10:11Z

Markdown Content:
# Why “Decrypting” a Password Is the Wrong Word | by Roberto Solari | Jun, 2026 | Medium

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# Why “Decrypting” a Password Is the Wrong Word

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## A technical tour of hashing, salt, pepper, and why your `SHA-256` password store is already broken

A company gets breached. The user database leaks. And often, not always but often, the attackers walk away _without_ the actual passwords, even though those passwords were right there in the stolen file.

How? The answer is a primitive so fundamental it underpins half of modern security, and so widely misunderstood that even the news gets the verb wrong. They say the

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Why “Decrypting” a Password Is the Wrong Word

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