Have you thought about that the passwords when they get sent out, that they get decrypted before they are sent? Also there is no way they can get the password list. PWizard and Nevermore would be the only 2 able to access it.
Tell that to hacker groups like anonymous. When someone wants something bad enough they will find a way. On that note encryption can be broken. However as angel said they easily could have them decrypted when sent. (Which further proves anything can be undone.)
Note: I am in no way saying people have or will hack this site. I am merely stating that anything possible to be prepared. Change your passwords often. Etc etc.
[Edited by Varacka, 4/30/2013 12:15:20 PM]
BTW skuggan just because a password is sent via plain text in an email, doesn't mean it is not protected on the database.
Most databases have standard encryption anyway, no matter who hosts the site.
As for CH not sure, but I think there has to be some sort of encryption used to stop people from unknown sources gaining info, the only people who can get the passwords in pure form as the admin who log in via the sites administration controls.
As for high level encryption, there is a problem with that, the site has to understand how to decrypt/encrypt information to check if the password stored for an account is the same which means the key is stored on the site, which means a hacker with knowledge can take that key wherever it is stored and then use it to decrypt data.
Only way would be to add another server which contains decryption data which is not part of the site adding another layer of protection.
[Edited by DABhand, 5/1/2013 6:47:56 AM]
Well it cant send me the password in plain text if it is encrypted, simply because the server doesnt know what my password is, it only knows the value of the encryption. With a key and the password I write to login it then check that the encrypted value in the password-list matches the encryption value generated from the password I wrote.
If it had a key to decrypt the passwords in the list and then send them in plain text to users all kinds of encryption would be kinda waste of time as you would provide the decryptionkey to any hacker who can reach the file.
A simple encryption and salt is all that is needed, and users that use long passwords. Anything above 16 characters long is safe enough, no one will spend time trying to bruteforce those passwords when they got a whole list of encrypted passwords and where some of them probably are pretty short, 10 characters or less.
[Edited by Skuggan, 5/1/2013 9:12:13 AM]