Why are passwords typically hashed?

Hashing passwords serves a critical purpose in enhancing security. When a password is hashed, it is transformed into a fixed-length string of characters that does not resemble the original password. This transformation makes it extremely difficult for an attacker to recover the original password even if they gain access to the hashed data.

Moreover, in the event of a breach where password databases are compromised, attackers can only obtain the hashed versions, not the actual passwords. Because of the nature of hashing, even minor changes in input will produce vastly different hashes, which adds an additional layer of security. This safeguards against common attack methods, such as rainbow table attacks, where precomputed hashes are used to quickly decipher passwords.

In summary, the reason hashed passwords are more effectively fortified against password file attacks is their one-way nature and the computational effort required to crack them, making it significantly more challenging for attackers to reverse-engineer and guess the original passwords.