Save a string in Matlab as P-Code

Question

I have a single string that contain a password in my program. I want save it as something like P-code that Matlab can read it but user cant open or see it.I get this string password from user (edit box). I don't want save all active or open variables, only I want save this single string to a protected file.

What function should I use?

Thanks.

Marcin · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-28 00:20:45Z

1

Usually when you deal with passwords people store their hash values, not the passwords in a plain text. Then when you check if password is correct, you just compare the hash values of password written by the user against that in the database/file you store. In matlab you can get MD5 or SH1 hash of a string using its embedded java.

for example:

 md = java.security.MessageDigest.getInstance('MD5');
 md5 = md.digest(uint8('my_secret_password'))'
 % gives: 126  -28   22  -43   39  -94  -48   71  117   28    2  109 -126  -37  -66  -17

 md = java.security.MessageDigest.getInstance('SHA1');
 md5 = md.digest(uint8('my_secret_password'))'
 % gives: 51  -91  -61   39    0   56  -19  -61  112  -10    9  -71 -111  117  117  -71   52   46   50 -122

answered Jul 28, 2014 at 0:20

Marcin

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4 Comments

Eghbal Over a year ago

Thank you for your answer. Nobody can't return this "hash values" to "String" ? Another question. Suppose that user can change the password. Where should I save this new password. I think I must have a secure file like p-code for storing this new password. Is this true?

Marcin Over a year ago

@user2991243 There is no way of changing hash to string, except brute force. Thus, when user forgets password, you just generate new one, as you cant recover it. When a user provides new password, you change the stored hash value to new one. For storing hashed password, you can use a database. It depends how many users you have, etc.

Eghbal Over a year ago

Thank you for answer. As you said for storing passwords of my users it is better to connect my program to something like MySQL. Is this true? There inst any way to store password in a secured mat file?

Marcin Over a year ago

@user2991243 I don't think matlab has some build in way to encrypt files. There are many threads about this giving some possible ways of doing that. One is here for example.

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