How do I generate a SALT in Java for Salted-Hash?

Question

I\'ve been looking around and the closest answer is : How to generate a random alpha-numeric string?

I want to follow this workflow according to this CrackStation tut

Answer 1

Here's my solution, i would love anyone's opinion on this, it's simple for beginners

import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;
import java.security.SecureRandom;
import java.security.spec.InvalidKeySpecException;
import java.security.spec.KeySpec;
import java.util.Base64;
import java.util.Base64.Encoder;
import java.util.Scanner;
import javax.crypto.SecretKeyFactory;
import javax.crypto.spec.PBEKeySpec;

public class Cryptography {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws NoSuchAlgorithmException, InvalidKeySpecException {
        Encoder encoder = Base64.getUrlEncoder().withoutPadding();
        System.out.print("Password: ");
        String strPassword = new Scanner(System.in).nextLine();
        byte[] bSalt = Salt();
        String strSalt = encoder.encodeToString(bSalt); // Byte to String
        System.out.println("Salt: " + strSalt);
        System.out.println("String to be hashed: " + strPassword + strSalt);
        String strHash = encoder.encodeToString(Hash(strPassword, bSalt)); // Byte to String
        System.out.println("Hashed value (Password + Salt value): " + strHash);
    }

    private static byte[] Salt() {
        SecureRandom random = new SecureRandom();
        byte salt[] = new byte[6];
        random.nextBytes(salt);
        return salt;
    }

    private static byte[] Hash(String password, byte[] salt) throws NoSuchAlgorithmException, InvalidKeySpecException {
        KeySpec spec = new PBEKeySpec(password.toCharArray(), salt, 65536, 128);
        SecretKeyFactory factory = SecretKeyFactory.getInstance("PBKDF2WithHmacSHA1");
        byte[] hash = factory.generateSecret(spec).getEncoded();
        return hash;
    }

}

You can validate by just decoding the strSalt and using the same hash method:

public static void main(String[] args) throws NoSuchAlgorithmException, InvalidKeySpecException {
        Encoder encoder = Base64.getUrlEncoder().withoutPadding();
        Decoder decoder = Base64.getUrlDecoder();
        System.out.print("Password: ");
        String strPassword = new Scanner(System.in).nextLine();
        String strSalt = "Your Salt String Here";
        byte[] bSalt = decoder.decode(strSalt); // String to Byte
        System.out.println("Salt: " + strSalt);
        System.out.println("String to be hashed: " + strPassword + strSalt);
        String strHash = encoder.encodeToString(Hash(strPassword, bSalt)); // Byte to String
        System.out.println("Hashed value (Password + Salt value): " + strHash);
    }

Answer 2

Another version using SHA-3, I am using bouncycastle:

The interface:

public interface IPasswords {

    /**
     * Generates a random salt.
     *
     * @return a byte array with a 64 byte length salt.
     */
    byte[] getSalt64();

    /**
     * Generates a random salt
     *
     * @return a byte array with a 32 byte length salt.
     */
    byte[] getSalt32();

    /**
     * Generates a new salt, minimum must be 32 bytes long, 64 bytes even better.
     *
     * @param size the size of the salt
     * @return a random salt.
     */
    byte[] getSalt(final int size);

    /**
     * Generates a new hashed password
     *
     * @param password to be hashed
     * @param salt the randomly generated salt
     * @return a hashed password
     */
    byte[] hash(final String password, final byte[] salt);

    /**
     * Expected password
     *
     * @param password to be verified
     * @param salt the generated salt (coming from database)
     * @param hash the generated hash (coming from database)
     * @return true if password matches, false otherwise
     */
    boolean isExpectedPassword(final String password, final byte[] salt, final byte[] hash);

    /**
     * Generates a random password
     *
     * @param length desired password length
     * @return a random password
     */
    String generateRandomPassword(final int length);
}

The implementation:

import org.apache.commons.lang3.ArrayUtils;
import org.apache.commons.lang3.Validate;
import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
import org.bouncycastle.jcajce.provider.digest.SHA3;

import java.io.Serializable;
import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
import java.security.SecureRandom;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Random;

public final class Passwords implements IPasswords, Serializable {

    /*serialVersionUID*/
    private static final long serialVersionUID = 8036397974428641579L;
    private static final Logger LOGGER = Logger.getLogger(Passwords.class);
    private static final Random RANDOM = new SecureRandom();
    private static final int DEFAULT_SIZE = 64;
    private static final char[] symbols;

    static {
            final StringBuilder tmp = new StringBuilder();
            for (char ch = '0'; ch <= '9'; ++ch) {
                    tmp.append(ch);
            }
            for (char ch = 'a'; ch <= 'z'; ++ch) {
                    tmp.append(ch);
            }
            symbols = tmp.toString().toCharArray();
    }

    @Override public byte[] getSalt64() {
            return getSalt(DEFAULT_SIZE);
    }

    @Override public byte[] getSalt32() {
            return getSalt(32);
    }

    @Override public byte[] getSalt(int size) {
            final byte[] salt;
            if (size < 32) {
                    final String message = String.format("Size < 32, using default of: %d", DEFAULT_SIZE);
                    LOGGER.warn(message);
                    salt = new byte[DEFAULT_SIZE];
            } else {
                    salt = new byte[size];
            }
            RANDOM.nextBytes(salt);
            return salt;
    }

    @Override public byte[] hash(String password, byte[] salt) {

            Validate.notNull(password, "Password must not be null");
            Validate.notNull(salt, "Salt must not be null");

            try {
                    final byte[] passwordBytes = password.getBytes("UTF-8");
                    final byte[] all = ArrayUtils.addAll(passwordBytes, salt);
                    SHA3.DigestSHA3 md = new SHA3.Digest512();
                    md.update(all);
                    return md.digest();
            } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
                    final String message = String
                            .format("Caught UnsupportedEncodingException e: <%s>", e.getMessage());
                    LOGGER.error(message);
            }
            return new byte[0];
    }

    @Override public boolean isExpectedPassword(final String password, final byte[] salt, final byte[] hash) {

            Validate.notNull(password, "Password must not be null");
            Validate.notNull(salt, "Salt must not be null");
            Validate.notNull(hash, "Hash must not be null");

            try {
                    final byte[] passwordBytes = password.getBytes("UTF-8");
                    final byte[] all = ArrayUtils.addAll(passwordBytes, salt);

                    SHA3.DigestSHA3 md = new SHA3.Digest512();
                    md.update(all);
                    final byte[] digest = md.digest();
                    return Arrays.equals(digest, hash);
            }catch(UnsupportedEncodingException e){
                    final String message =
                            String.format("Caught UnsupportedEncodingException e: <%s>", e.getMessage());
                    LOGGER.error(message);
            }
            return false;


    }

    @Override public String generateRandomPassword(final int length) {

            if (length < 1) {
                    throw new IllegalArgumentException("length must be greater than 0");
            }

            final char[] buf = new char[length];
            for (int idx = 0; idx < buf.length; ++idx) {
                    buf[idx] = symbols[RANDOM.nextInt(symbols.length)];
            }
            return shuffle(new String(buf));
    }


    private String shuffle(final String input){
            final List<Character> characters = new ArrayList<Character>();
            for(char c:input.toCharArray()){
                    characters.add(c);
            }
            final StringBuilder output = new StringBuilder(input.length());
            while(characters.size()!=0){
                    int randPicker = (int)(Math.random()*characters.size());
                    output.append(characters.remove(randPicker));
            }
            return output.toString();
    }
}

The test cases:

public class PasswordsTest {

    private static final Logger LOGGER = Logger.getLogger(PasswordsTest.class);

    @Before
    public void setup(){
            BasicConfigurator.configure();
    }

    @Test
    public void testGeSalt() throws Exception {

            IPasswords passwords = new Passwords();
            final byte[] bytes = passwords.getSalt(0);
            int arrayLength = bytes.length;

            assertThat("Expected length is", arrayLength, is(64));
    }

    @Test
    public void testGeSalt32() throws Exception {
            IPasswords passwords = new Passwords();
            final byte[] bytes = passwords.getSalt32();
            int arrayLength = bytes.length;
            assertThat("Expected length is", arrayLength, is(32));
    }

    @Test
    public void testGeSalt64() throws Exception {
            IPasswords passwords = new Passwords();
            final byte[] bytes = passwords.getSalt64();
            int arrayLength = bytes.length;
            assertThat("Expected length is", arrayLength, is(64));
    }

    @Test
    public void testHash() throws Exception {
            IPasswords passwords = new Passwords();
            final byte[] hash = passwords.hash("holacomoestas", passwords.getSalt64());
            assertThat("Array is not null", hash, Matchers.notNullValue());
    }


    @Test
    public void testSHA3() throws UnsupportedEncodingException {
            SHA3.DigestSHA3 md = new SHA3.Digest256();
            md.update("holasa".getBytes("UTF-8"));
            final byte[] digest = md.digest();
             assertThat("expected digest is:",digest,Matchers.notNullValue());
    }

    @Test
    public void testIsExpectedPasswordIncorrect() throws Exception {

            String password = "givemebeer";
            IPasswords passwords = new Passwords();

            final byte[] salt64 = passwords.getSalt64();
            final byte[] hash = passwords.hash(password, salt64);
            //The salt and the hash go to database.

            final boolean isPasswordCorrect = passwords.isExpectedPassword("jfjdsjfsd", salt64, hash);

            assertThat("Password is not correct", isPasswordCorrect, is(false));

    }

    @Test
    public void testIsExpectedPasswordCorrect() throws Exception {
            String password = "givemebeer";
            IPasswords passwords = new Passwords();
            final byte[] salt64 = passwords.getSalt64();
            final byte[] hash = passwords.hash(password, salt64);
            //The salt and the hash go to database.
            final boolean isPasswordCorrect = passwords.isExpectedPassword("givemebeer", salt64, hash);
            assertThat("Password is correct", isPasswordCorrect, is(true));
    }

    @Test
    public void testGenerateRandomPassword() throws Exception {
            IPasswords passwords = new Passwords();
            final String randomPassword = passwords.generateRandomPassword(10);
            LOGGER.info(randomPassword);
            assertThat("Random password is not null", randomPassword, Matchers.notNullValue());
    }
}

pom.xml (only dependencies):

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>junit</groupId>
        <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
        <version>4.12</version>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.testng</groupId>
        <artifactId>testng</artifactId>
        <version>6.1.1</version>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.hamcrest</groupId>
        <artifactId>hamcrest-all</artifactId>
        <version>1.3</version>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>log4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
        <version>1.2.17</version>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.bouncycastle</groupId>
        <artifactId>bcprov-jdk15on</artifactId>
        <version>1.51</version>
        <type>jar</type>
    </dependency>


    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
        <artifactId>commons-lang3</artifactId>
        <version>3.3.2</version>
    </dependency>


</dependencies>

Answer 3

Inspired from this post and that post, I use this code to generate and verify hashed salted passwords. It only uses JDK provided classes, no external dependency.

The process is:

• you create a salt with getNextSalt
• you ask the user his password and use the hash method to generate a salted and hashed password. The method returns a byte[] which you can save as is in a database with the salt
• to authenticate a user, you ask his password, retrieve the salt and hashed password from the database and use the isExpectedPassword method to check that the details match

/**
 * A utility class to hash passwords and check passwords vs hashed values. It uses a combination of hashing and unique
 * salt. The algorithm used is PBKDF2WithHmacSHA1 which, although not the best for hashing password (vs. bcrypt) is
 * still considered robust and <a href="https://security.stackexchange.com/a/6415/12614"> recommended by NIST </a>.
 * The hashed value has 256 bits.
 */
public class Passwords {

  private static final Random RANDOM = new SecureRandom();
  private static final int ITERATIONS = 10000;
  private static final int KEY_LENGTH = 256;

  /**
   * static utility class
   */
  private Passwords() { }

  /**
   * Returns a random salt to be used to hash a password.
   *
   * @return a 16 bytes random salt
   */
  public static byte[] getNextSalt() {
    byte[] salt = new byte[16];
    RANDOM.nextBytes(salt);
    return salt;
  }

  /**
   * Returns a salted and hashed password using the provided hash.<br>
   * Note - side effect: the password is destroyed (the char[] is filled with zeros)
   *
   * @param password the password to be hashed
   * @param salt     a 16 bytes salt, ideally obtained with the getNextSalt method
   *
   * @return the hashed password with a pinch of salt
   */
  public static byte[] hash(char[] password, byte[] salt) {
    PBEKeySpec spec = new PBEKeySpec(password, salt, ITERATIONS, KEY_LENGTH);
    Arrays.fill(password, Character.MIN_VALUE);
    try {
      SecretKeyFactory skf = SecretKeyFactory.getInstance("PBKDF2WithHmacSHA1");
      return skf.generateSecret(spec).getEncoded();
    } catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException | InvalidKeySpecException e) {
      throw new AssertionError("Error while hashing a password: " + e.getMessage(), e);
    } finally {
      spec.clearPassword();
    }
  }

  /**
   * Returns true if the given password and salt match the hashed value, false otherwise.<br>
   * Note - side effect: the password is destroyed (the char[] is filled with zeros)
   *
   * @param password     the password to check
   * @param salt         the salt used to hash the password
   * @param expectedHash the expected hashed value of the password
   *
   * @return true if the given password and salt match the hashed value, false otherwise
   */
  public static boolean isExpectedPassword(char[] password, byte[] salt, byte[] expectedHash) {
    byte[] pwdHash = hash(password, salt);
    Arrays.fill(password, Character.MIN_VALUE);
    if (pwdHash.length != expectedHash.length) return false;
    for (int i = 0; i < pwdHash.length; i++) {
      if (pwdHash[i] != expectedHash[i]) return false;
    }
    return true;
  }

  /**
   * Generates a random password of a given length, using letters and digits.
   *
   * @param length the length of the password
   *
   * @return a random password
   */
  public static String generateRandomPassword(int length) {
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(length);
    for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
      int c = RANDOM.nextInt(62);
      if (c <= 9) {
        sb.append(String.valueOf(c));
      } else if (c < 36) {
        sb.append((char) ('a' + c - 10));
      } else {
        sb.append((char) ('A' + c - 36));
      }
    }
    return sb.toString();
  }
}

Answer 4

You were right regarding how you want to generate salt i.e. its nothing but a random number. For this particular case it would protect your system from possible Dictionary attacks. Now, for the second problem what you could do is instead of using UTF-8 encoding you may want to use Base64. Here, is a sample for generating a hash. I am using Apache Common Codecs for doing the base64 encoding you may select one of your own

public byte[] generateSalt() {
        SecureRandom random = new SecureRandom();
        byte bytes[] = new byte[20];
        random.nextBytes(bytes);
        return bytes;
    }

public String bytetoString(byte[] input) {
        return org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64.encodeBase64String(input);
    }

public byte[] getHashWithSalt(String input, HashingTechqniue technique, byte[] salt) throws NoSuchAlgorithmException {
        MessageDigest digest = MessageDigest.getInstance(technique.value);
        digest.reset();
        digest.update(salt);
        byte[] hashedBytes = digest.digest(stringToByte(input));
        return hashedBytes;
    }
public byte[] stringToByte(String input) {
        if (Base64.isBase64(input)) {
            return Base64.decodeBase64(input);

        } else {
            return Base64.encodeBase64(input.getBytes());
        }
    }

Here is some additional reference of the standard practice in password hashing directly from OWASP