What are the potential pitfalls of storing passwords in a PHP website without hashing them?

Storing passwords in a PHP website without hashing them poses a significant security risk as it exposes users' sensitive information to potential breaches. To mitigate this risk, passwords should be hashed before storing them in the database. This process converts the password into a fixed-length string of characters that cannot be reversed to reveal the original password. 

```php
$password = "user_password";
$hashed_password = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);
```

In this code snippet, the `password_hash()` function is used to securely hash the user's password before storing it in the database. This ensures that even if the database is compromised, the original passwords cannot be easily obtained.

Keywords

passwords PHP hashing security vulnerability

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