What is the purpose of password salting?

Password salting is a technique used to ensure that passwords are unique, even if two users choose the same password. When a password is salted, the system generates a random value (the salt) that is combined with the password before hashing it. This means that even if two users have the same password, their salted hashes will be different due to the unique salts, making it much harder for attackers to use precomputed hash tables (like rainbow tables) for password cracking.

The primary goal of salting is to prevent attackers from easily determining if two users have chosen the same password, thereby enhancing the security of stored passwords. This technique adds a significant layer of security to the password storage mechanism by ensuring that identical passwords yield different hashed values.

While encrypting the password, increasing its complexity, or lengthening it may improve security, these actions are not the specific goal of salting. Salting focuses primarily on maintaining uniqueness in the hashed output for the same input.