What are some best practices for validating passwords in PHP forms?

When validating passwords in PHP forms, it is important to enforce certain criteria such as minimum length, inclusion of both letters and numbers, and special characters for added security. One common practice is to use regular expressions to check if the password meets the desired criteria. Additionally, it is recommended to hash the password before storing it in the database to further enhance security. 

$password = $_POST['password'];

if (!preg_match('/^(?=.*\d)(?=.*[A-Za-z])(?=.*[!@#$%^&*])[A-Za-z\d!@#$%^&*]{8,}$/', $password)) {
    // Password does not meet criteria
    echo "Password must be at least 8 characters long and contain at least one letter, one number, and one special character.";
} else {
    // Hash the password before storing it in the database
    $hashed_password = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);
    // Store $hashed_password in the database
}

Keywords

password validation PHP forms hashing algorithms password strength input sanitization

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