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Glite Dictionary
🧈 Without salt 🔓 No extra security
unsalted

unsalted

8.7
A saved form of a password made without extra random numbers, so attackers can find the password more easily
  • adjective
  • /ʌnˈsɔltɪd/
  • Specialized
translation icon : sin sal
  • Storing unsalted hashes in the database makes it easy for attackers to crack the passwords.

Examples

  • Half of the recent hacks have resulted in either plaintext passwords being revealed, or unsalted hashes that can be brute-forced.

    Blog text (25)

  • Many users are at risk because their accounts use unsalted passwords that can easily be compromised.

  • It's important to avoid using unsalted passwords to enhance security against data breaches.

How Salted

salted
1.0
unsalted
  • Specialized
8.7

Surface Forms

unsalted positive

Morphology

unsalted = salted (semi-transparent) = un + salt + ed

Morphologically clear as 'not salted', but here 'salt' refers to a technical cryptographic ingredient, so the semantic link is specialized and may not be known to general learners.

Etymology

The word unsalted uses the same parts un- meaning 'not' and salt meaning 'a small secret added to a password, like the salt you put on food'. So an unsalted password is 'not given that extra salt', which makes it weaker and easier to break.