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The AuthComponent uses the Security class to hash a password. The Security class uses the SHA1 scheme by default. To change another hash function used by the Auth component, use the setHash method passing it md5, sha1 or sha256 as its first and only parameter in your login function.

Security::setHash('md5'); // or sha1 or sha256. 

1. Security::setHash('md5'); // or sha1 or sha256.

The Security class uses a salt value (set in /app/config/core.php) to hash the password.

If you want to use different password hashing logic beyond md5/sha1 with the application salt, you will need to override the standard hashPassword mechanism - You may need to do this if for example you have an existing database that previously used a hashing scheme without a salt. To do this, create the method hashPasswords in the class you want to be responsible for hashing your passwords (usually the User model) and set authenticate to the object you're authenticating against (usually this is User) like so:

function beforeFilter() {
   $this->Auth->authenticate = ClassRegistry::init('User');
   ...
   parent::beforeFilter();
}

1. function beforeFilter() {
2. $this->Auth->authenticate = ClassRegistry::init('User');
3. ...
4. parent::beforeFilter();
5. }

With the above code, the User model hashPasswords() method will be called each time Cake calls AuthComponent::hashPasswords(). Here's an example hashPassword function, appropriate if you've already got a users table full of plain md5-hashed passwords:

class User extends AppModel {
    function hashPasswords($data) {
        if (isset($data['User']['password'])) {
            $data['User']['password'] = md5($data['User']['password']);
            return $data;
        }
        return $data;
    }
}

1. class User extends AppModel {
2. function hashPasswords($data) {
3. if (isset($data['User']['password'])) {
4. $data['User']['password'] = md5($data['User']['password']);
5. return $data;
6. }
7. return $data;
8. }
9. }