How should I hash passwords in CodeIgniter

Question

I started to use Codeigniter framework and in their new release doc's they say

DO NOT use this or any other encryption library for user password storage! Passwords must be hashed instead, and you should do that via PHP’s own Password Hashing extension.

The problem is that I use PHP 5.3 and that extension requires 5.5

What should i use for hashing in PHP 5.3?

Answer 1

private function hash_password($password){
   return password_hash($password, PASSWORD_BCRYPT);
}
public function registerUser($username,$email,$password){
   $data = array(
     'username' => $username,
      'email' => $email,
     'password' => $this->hash_password($password)
);
return $this->db->insert('table_name', $data);
}

PASSWORD_BCRYPT - Use the CRYPT_BLOWFISH algorithm to create the hash. This will produce a standard crypt() compatible hash using the "$2y$" identifier. The result will always be a 60 character string, or FALSE on failure.
_{Source: http://php.net/manual/en/function.password-hash.php}