# MD5 hash from crypt and openssl different?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/md5-hash-from-crypt-and-openssl-different/87096>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [February 28, 2007, 3:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/md5-hash-from-crypt-and-openssl-different/87096 "2007-02-28T03:37:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![eno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/f1d935/32.png) [@eno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/eno)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2007, 3:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/md5-hash-from-crypt-and-openssl-different/87096/1 "2007-02-28T03:37:09Z")

</div>

Im authenticating (system) users by making PAM use a MySQL database.  
This  
means Unix passwords are stored as MD5 crypted strings.

I can use “openssl passwd -1” on the command-line to generate  
passwords  
and set them in the database - this works just fine.

Ruby has a crypt method in the String class that does the same thing:  
indeed, using str.crypt("$1$") generates a crypted string that also  
works  
when inserted into the MySQL database.

Both strings look completely different but both work just fine when  
using  
PAM authentication.

Now Im writing a web-based control panel using Rails and come up  
against the problem with the MD5 crypted strings being completely  
different. I can’t test for equality since crypt and openssl both  
generate  
different strings. I already have users using this database so  
switching  
everyone’s password is not an option.

So what’s the best way to emulate “openssl passwd -1” for crypting  
passwords in Ruby?