What are Laravel hashing methods?

In Laravel, hashing is a way to securely store sensitive data like passwords. Laravel provides built-in hashing methods to make it easier to hash and verify values. Let me explain in detail.

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1. Hashing in Laravel

Laravel uses the Hash facade to work with hashing. The most common methods are bcrypt and argon2.

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2. Built-in Hashing Methods

a) Bcrypt

• Bcrypt is the default hashing method in Laravel.
• It’s secure, widely used, and automatically handles salt internally.
• Example:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Hash;

$password = 'secret123';
$hashed = Hash::make($password);

• To verify:

if (Hash::check('secret123', $hashed)) {
    // Password is correct
}

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b) Argon2

• Laravel also supports Argon2i and Argon2id, which are considered more secure and resistant to GPU attacks.
• Example:

$hashed = Hash::make('secret123', [
    'memory' => 1024,
    'time' => 2,
    'threads' => 2,
]);

• You can check passwords the same way using Hash::check().

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c) Password Rehashing

• Laravel allows you to rehash passwords if your hashing algorithm changes:

if (Hash::needsRehash($hashed)) {
    $hashed = Hash::make('secret123');
}

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3. Summary of Laravel Hashing Methods

Method	Description	Default Options
bcrypt	Default method, secure, automatically salted	Cost: 10
argon2i	Resistant to GPU attacks	Memory, time, threads
argon2id	Hybrid variant of Argon2	Memory, time, threads

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4. Usage Notes

• Never store plain text passwords.
• Always use Hash::make() for storing and Hash::check() for verifying.
• Use Hash::needsRehash() if you update security settings.