gitlab-org--gitlab-foss/doc/security/password_storage.md

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# Password Storage

GitLab stores user passwords in a hashed format, to prevent passwords from being visible.

GitLab uses the [Devise](https://github.com/plataformatec/devise) authentication library, which handles the hashing of user passwords. Password hashes are created with the following attributes:

- **Hashing**: the [bcrypt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bcrypt) hashing function is used to generate the hash of the provided password. This is a strong, industry-standard cryptographic hashing function.
- **Stretching**: Password hashes are [stretched](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_stretching) to harden against brute-force attacks. GitLab uses a stretching factor of 10 by default.
- **Salting**: A [cryptographic salt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_(cryptography)) is added to each password to harden against pre-computed hash and dictionary attacks. Each salt is randomly generated for each password, so that no two passwords share a salt, to further increase security.
Document how GitLab stores passwords Provide details on how GitLab stores passwords, including hashing, stretching, and salting. This was driven by a customer asking for this information for a security compliance audit report. 2019-08-21 17:49:04 -04:00			`---`
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			`# Password Storage`

			`GitLab stores user passwords in a hashed format, to prevent passwords from being visible.`

			`GitLab uses the [Devise](https://github.com/plataformatec/devise) authentication library, which handles the hashing of user passwords. Password hashes are created with the following attributes:`

			`- Hashing: the [bcrypt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bcrypt) hashing function is used to generate the hash of the provided password. This is a strong, industry-standard cryptographic hashing function.`
Fix a typo in the section on stretching Correct a typo in the description of how passwords are stretched. 2019-08-21 18:24:12 -04:00			`- Stretching: Password hashes are [stretched](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_stretching) to harden against brute-force attacks. GitLab uses a stretching factor of 10 by default.`
Improve readability of salting description Add a comma in the final sentence of the description of salting, to improve the readability of what's being said. 2019-08-22 12:07:19 -04:00			`- Salting: A [cryptographic salt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_(cryptography)) is added to each password to harden against pre-computed hash and dictionary attacks. Each salt is randomly generated for each password, so that no two passwords share a salt, to further increase security.`