Authenticating Users with a Database

Abstract

Chapter 11 showed you the principles of user authentication and sessions to password-protect parts of your web site, but the login scripts all relied on usernames and passwords stored in a CSV file. Keeping user details in a database is both more secure and more efficient. Instead of just storing a list of usernames and passwords, a database can store other details, such as first name, family name, email address, and so on. Databases also give you the option of using either hashing (one-way and irreversible) or encryption (two-way). In the first section of this chapter, we’ll examine the difference between the two. Then you’ll create registration and login scripts for both types of storage.