Salt

Random data added to input before hashing to defeat precomputed (rainbow) attacks.

A salt is random data added to a password before hashing, so two users with the same password get different digests and precomputed rainbow tables become useless. The salt does not need to be secret — it’s stored alongside the hash; uniqueness per password is what matters. A pepper adds a separate, server-wide secret kept outside the database for an extra layer.

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