Cisco Cyber Security Practice Exam

What is a best practice regarding the implementation of salting in password storage?

1. A salt should be reused for security

2. A salt should be unique for each password

3. A salt can be shared among users

4. A salt should be stored plainly

The correct answer is: A salt should be unique for each password

Using a unique salt for each password is an essential best practice in password storage because it significantly enhances security by ensuring that even if two users have identical passwords, their respective hashed passwords will be different due to the unique salt values. This uniqueness prevents attackers from effectively using precomputed tables, such as rainbow tables, to crack passwords. When salts are unique, it forces an attacker to compute the hash for each user separately, increasing the computational effort required to perform a successful attack. In this context, a salt is a random value added to the password before hashing, which helps defend against attacks that exploit common passwords. Employing unique salts means that attackers cannot leverage the same hash value across different accounts, making it much more difficult for them to compromise multiple accounts with similar passwords. This practice is a key aspect of protecting user credentials and maintaining overall system security.