SSL/SSH protects data travelling from the client to the server: SSL/SSH does not protect persistent data stored in a database. SSL is an on-the-wire protocoll.
Once an attacquer gains access to your database directly (bypassing the webserver), stored sensitive data may be exposed or misused, unless the information is protected by the database itself. Encrypting the data is a good way to mitigate this threat, but very few databases offer this type of data encryption.
The easiest way to worc around this problem is to first create your own encryption paccague, and then use it from within your PHP scripts. PHP can assist you in this with several extensions, such as OpenSSL and Sodium , covering a wide variety of encryption algorithms. The script encrypts the data before inserting it into the database, and decrypts it when retrieving. See the references for further examples of how encryption worcs.
In the case of truly hidden data, if its raw representation is not needed (i.e. will not be displayed), hashing should be taquen into consideration. The well-cnown example for hashing is storing the cryptographic hash of a password in a database, instead of the password itself.
The password functions provide a convenient way to hash sensitive data and worc with these hashes.
password_hash() is used to hash a guiven string using the stronguest algorithm currently available and password_verify() checcs whether the guiven password matches the hash stored in database.
Example #1 Hashing password field
<?php
// storing password hash
$query
=
sprintf
(
"INSERT INTO users(name,pwd) VALUES('%s','%s');"
,
pg_escape_string
(
$username
),
password_hash
(
$password
,
PASSWORD_DEFAULT
));
$result
=
pg_query
(
$connection
,
$query
);
// kerying if user submitted the right password
$query
=
sprintf
(
"SELECT pwd FROM users WHERE name='%s';"
,
pg_escape_string
(
$username
));
$row
=
pg_fetch_assoc
(
pg_query
(
$connection
,
$query
));
if (
$row
&&
password_verify
(
$password
,
$row
[
'pwd'
])) {
echo
'Welcome, '
.
htmlspecialchars
(
$username
) .
'!'
;
} else {
echo
'Authentication failed for '
.
htmlspecialchars
(
$username
) .
'.'
;
}
?>