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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsbcrypt.hash(password, 10) is not automatically insecure: OWASP’s current guidance sets cost 10 as the minimum when bcrypt must be used for a legacy system. But that floor does not guarantee the setting is right for your server, that the library handles long inputs safely, or that bcrypt is the best choice for a new system. Check the algorithm, input limit, and real-world verification performance before relying on a copied snippet.
What does bcrypt cost 10 mean?
The 10 is bcrypt’s cost, or work factor. It is not simply ten ordinary rounds: bcrypt’s work grows exponentially with the cost parameter. The Node.js bcrypt package documentation describes cost 10 as 210 rounds. A higher cost makes each hash calculation more expensive for a legitimate login and for an attacker testing guesses against stolen hashes.
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OWASP says bcrypt should be used only for password storage in legacy systems where Argon2 and scrypt are unavailable, and specifies a work factor of at least 10. That makes 10 a floor in this legacy guidance—not a universal production recommendation or proof that a particular deployment is secure. OWASP Password Storage Cheat Sheet
How should you choose a bcrypt cost?
Choose the largest work factor your verifier can sustain without harming login performance or making resource exhaustion too easy. OWASP offers less than one second to calculate a hash as a general target, not a benchmark result or a universal latency requirement. The acceptable cost depends on your hardware, workload, concurrency, and service requirements; OWASP explicitly says there is no single ideal work factor.
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- Benchmark the actual service. Measure both hashing and verification on production-equivalent hardware, under realistic concurrency. A fast result from a developer laptop does not establish safe capacity for a busy authentication service.
- Set a practical latency and capacity budget. Consider the effect of expensive verification on normal login traffic as well as bursts of requests. Pair the setting with rate limiting and application-level abuse protections; password-hash cost alone is not an online-attack defense.
- Increase carefully and monitor. Raise the cost as far as your measured service can safely support, then watch login latency and resource use. Reassess it as hardware and traffic change. NIST likewise recommends choosing the highest practical cost without harming verifier performance and increasing it over time. NIST SP 800-63B-4
Does bcrypt truncate passwords after 72 characters?
The commonly documented bcrypt limit is 72 bytes, not 72 characters. UTF-8 characters can use multiple bytes, so a password may reach the limit with fewer than 72 visible characters. OWASP advises enforcing a maximum of 72 bytes or a lower limit if the implementation requires it. The exact behavior at and beyond the limit depends on the library and version, so verify its documentation rather than assuming the full submitted password is used.
For the Node.js bcrypt package, its documentation describes the first-72-byte behavior and recommends version 5.0.0 or later to avoid the security issues it documents. Check the version in your application and its specific handling of long and Unicode input. Node.js bcrypt package documentation
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OWASP’s authentication guidance recommends allowing a maximum password length of at least 64 characters so users can choose passphrases. That character-based policy recommendation does not override bcrypt’s byte ceiling. If you retain bcrypt, define and explain a limit that accounts for encoded bytes, and reject unsupported overlong passwords explicitly. Silently treating distinct long passwords as equivalent can surprise users and weaken the meaning of their chosen password. OWASP Authentication Cheat Sheet
Should a new system use bcrypt or Argon2id?
For a new password-storage system, evaluate Argon2id first. OWASP positions bcrypt as a legacy choice and recommends Argon2id with a minimum configuration of 19 MiB memory, 2 iterations, and parallelism 1. If Argon2id is unavailable, OWASP lists scrypt as an alternative, with minimum parameters of CPU/memory cost 217, block size 8 (1024 bytes), and parallelization 1. These are OWASP guidance floors, not guarantees that a configuration suits every deployment.
| Approach | OWASP guidance | What to assess |
|---|---|---|
| Argon2id | Preferred for new systems; minimum 19 MiB memory, 2 iterations, parallelism 1. | Library and environment support, measured verifier capacity, and compatibility with stored hashes. |
| scrypt | Alternative if Argon2id is unavailable; minimum CPU/memory cost 217, block size 8 (1024 bytes), parallelization 1. | Support in your stack and the resource cost under expected login concurrency. |
| bcrypt | Legacy option when Argon2 and scrypt are unavailable; work factor at least 10. | Appropriate cost for your service and the implementation’s 72-byte input behavior. |
Algorithm selection also depends on existing hash formats, available libraries, deployment constraints, and compliance requirements. NIST calls for an approved current password-hashing scheme and recommends retaining the scheme and cost information with each verifier so that systems can migrate algorithms or parameters.
How to update an existing bcrypt implementation
- Identify the exact package and version. Read its current documentation for cost settings, asynchronous behavior, encoding, and overlong inputs. For Node.js
bcrypt, confirm whether the deployed version is at least 5.0.0, as the package recommends for the issues it documents. - Test cost and capacity on representative infrastructure. Benchmark hash and verify operations under expected load; choose a cost that balances resistance to offline guessing with responsive logins and safe resource use.
- Make password-length handling explicit. Decide how your application measures and enforces the limit. For bcrypt, account for encoded bytes, and reject unsupported inputs rather than silently accepting a value the implementation does not fully process.
- Evaluate a modern scheme for new hashes. Assess Argon2id first and scrypt if Argon2id is unavailable, against your platform and requirements. Store the algorithm and parameters alongside each verifier.
- Upgrade hashes after successful authentication. Verify a login with the account’s stored scheme and cost. If those settings are outdated, rehash the password with the current scheme and parameters after successful verification. Keep a password-reset path for accounts that cannot be upgraded through login.
What cost 10 does—and does not—tell you
Cost 10 meets OWASP’s cited minimum for legacy bcrypt, but it does not establish the security of an application by itself. It says nothing about the specific library version, how inputs beyond 72 bytes are handled, whether the service can safely support a higher cost, or whether bcrypt is appropriate for a new system. There is no universal cracking-time estimate implied by the number: the result depends on the implementation and attacker resources, and no deployment-specific hash performance or attack rate is established here.
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