§-Quick questions
NSWSoftware EngineeringModule 1: Secure Software Architecture
Quick questions on Hashing and password storage explained: HSC Software Engineering Module 1
3short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is hashing?Show answer
A hash function takes any input and produces a fixed-length output. Good cryptographic hash functions are:
What is salting?Show answer
A salt is a random string (typically 16+ bytes) generated uniquely per user and combined with the password before hashing. Salting defeats two precomputed-attack categories:
What are slow hash functions?Show answer
General-purpose hashes like SHA-256 are too fast: a GPU can compute billions per second, so brute-forcing weak passwords is cheap. Password storage uses deliberately slow hash functions:
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