Re: encryption methods?

Butler, Shaun pressed the little lettered thingies in this order... > check out the crypt() function > > http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.crypt.php > > if you don't care about decrypting the password this works fine. > > --Shaun > Umm... You've misunderstood something. The reason why you would WANT to use mcrypt is because you CAN decrypt data that it has encrypted. For encryption: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.mcrypt-encrypt.php For decryption: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.mcrypt-decrypt.php I use mcrypt when I need to store data that must be encrypted in the DB, but must also be decrypted on the way out (including passwords and credit card numbers). The only reason you would need to decrypt passwords is if you want to view them or if you want to make it possible to have passwords mailed to people who forget theirs. If you don't need decrypt capabilities, most (all?) SQL database servers have support for one-way encryption. It's not efficient to store user data in "PHP scripts" (or any other script for that matter) as was stated in the initial message. If you have access to a database server, use it. Christopher Ostmo a.k.a. tech@AppIdeas.com AppIdeas.com Innovative Application Ideas Meeting cutting edge dynamic web site needs since the dawn of Internet time (1995) For a good time, http://www.AppIdeas.com/