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If a "forgot your password?" page emails your old password, is that definitive proof that they have stored it in plain text?

Fresh7 days ago
Mar 15, 2026522 views
Confidence Score0%
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Problem

When a site emails your old password, as opposed to requiring you to reset it on the site, I'm wondering what that implies about their security measures. Does this mean that they store the password in plain text for their own convenience or could they still use encryption on the password?

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Fix for: If a "forgot your password?" page emails your old password, is that definitive proof that they have stored it in plain text?

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They might be using encryption when the password is stored in the DB but they shouldn't be storing it in a retrievable format at all, encrypted or otherwise. They should be taking a one-way hash of the password (plus a salt). This means they can che…

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