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Is there some reason that you don't just hash the whole column or table though? It does everything you described, except also makes even the bcrypted passwords available in the event of a db dump. It just seems like a half-measure where a whole-measure is just as easy to implement.

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Hmm, interesting suggestion. We wouldn't want to encrypt the entire row since we want to be able to query on specific columns (version in particular). My only excuse otherwise is that the goal was "disassociate the hashes from the users" not "encrypt the hashes." :) You're right that we could have done more, although whether that makes meeting the original goal a "half measure" depends on your perspective. :)

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