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Encrypting passwords wouldn't add a lot here unless you're using some mechanism to protect the encryption/decryption key (like using a Hardware Security Module), as an attacker who compromises the database is likely to compromise the key at the same time.

If you do have a hardware security module, then why not just do away with hashing altogether, encrypt the passwords with AES-128 and you'll likely be fine (as long as the attacker can't extract the key from the HSM)




It's slightly useful if you only give the key to your application servers, and not your database servers. Now you need an application server breach and not just read access to a database.

It's not unheard of for something like a decommissioned database backup to wind up insecure and on the internet without being properly wiped, causing a whole-db leak without anyone actually breaking into a production system.

Not sure it's worth the effort:reward though




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