How does node.bcrypt.js compare hashed and plaintext passwords without the salt?

Question

How does node.bcrypt.js compare hashed and plaintext passwords without the salt?

To hash a password:

var bcrypt = require('bcrypt');
bcrypt.genSalt(10, function(err, salt) {
    bcrypt.hash("B4c0/\/", salt, function(err, hash) {
        // Store hash in your password DB.
    });
});

To check a password:

// Load hash from your password DB.
bcrypt.compare("B4c0/\/", hash, function(err, res) {
    // res == true
});
bcrypt.compare("not_bacon", hash, function(err, res) {
    // res = false
});

From above, how can there be no salt values involved in the comparisons? What am I missing here?

node.js
bcrypt

Answer 1

The salt is incorporated into the hash (as plaintext). The compare function simply pulls the salt out of the hash and then uses it to hash the password and perform the comparison.

Answer 2

I had the same question too as the original poster and it took a look bit of looking around and trying different things to understand the mechanism. As has already been pointed out by others, the salt is concatenated to the final hash. So this means a couple of things:

The algorithm must know the length of the salt
Must also know the position of the salt in the final string. e.g. if offset by a specific number from left or right.

These two things are usually hard coded in the implementation e.g. the bcrypt implementation source for bcryptjs defines the salt length as 16

/**
* @type {number}
* @const
* @private
*/

var BCRYPT_SALT_LEN = 16;

So to illustrate the basic concept behind the idea if one wanted to do it manually, It would look similar to the below. I do not recommend implementing stuff like this yourself when there are libraries that you can get to do it.

var salt_length = 16;
var salt_offset = 0;

var genSalt = function(callback)
{
    var alphaNum = '0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqurstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQURSTUVWXYZ';
    var salt = '';
    for (var i = 0; i < salt_length; i++) {
        var j = Math.floor(Math.random() * alphaNum.length);
        salt += alphaNum[j];
    }
    callback(salt);
}

// cryptographic hash function of your choice e.g. shar2
// preferably included from an External Library (dont reinvent the wheel)
var shar2 = function(str) {
    // shar2 logic here 
    // return hashed string;
}

var hash = function(passwordText, callback)
{
    var passwordHash = null;
    genSalt(function(salt){
        passwordHash = salt + shar2(passwordText + salt);
    });

    callback(null, passwordHash);
}

var compare = function(passwordText, passwordHash, callback)
{
    var salt = passwordHash.substr(salt_offset, salt_length);
    validatedHash = salt + shar2(passwordText + salt);

    callback(passwordHash === validatedHash);   
}

// sample usage
var encryptPassword = function(user)
{
    // user is an object with fields like username, pass, email
    hash(user.pass, function(err, passwordHash){
        // use the hashed password here
        user.pass = passwordHash;
    });

    return user;
}

var checkPassword = function(passwordText, user)
{
    // user has been returned from database with a hashed password
    compare(passwordText, user.pass, function(result){
        // result will be true if the two are equal
        if (result){
            // succeeded
            console.log('Correct Password');
        }
        else {
            // failed
            console.log('Incorrect Password');
        }
    });
}