Hashing passwords is primarily used for what purpose?

Hashing passwords is a crucial security measure used to convert passwords into fixed-length strings of characters, which appear as unique and random hashes. This transformation is done using a hashing algorithm that processes the original password into a seemingly meaningless string. The primary purpose of this process is to enhance security by ensuring that even if an attacker gains access to the hashed values, they cannot easily revert them back to the original passwords.

Using hashed passwords protects user credentials from being exposed in plaintext, thus reducing the risk of unauthorized access to accounts. Hash functions also provide additional benefits, such as being computationally infeasible to reverse-engineer, ensuring that even if one hashed password is compromised, it does not lead to the exposure of others. In systems that utilize password hashing, when a user logs in, the provided password is hashed again and compared against the stored hash, facilitating secure authentication without revealing the actual password.