importing passwords from different system - how to migrate
 

I have a custom-built user forum that I am migrating over into VBulletin (v3.5.4).

One issue I am facing is how to port all of the current user passwords over from the old system, which simply uses an md5 encryption of the password, and into VBulletin, which uses this additional "salt" field.

Since VBulletin uses an md5 encryption of the user's plaintext password along with this "salt" mechanism, is there any way to do this, since I don't have copies of the plain-text passwords for my users?

Or, Is there a way to get VBulletin to use a simple md5 encryption of the password only, and disable using the extra "salt?"

What is a good suggestion on how to migrate my user base into VBulletin given this password issue?

Thanks!!

Are you using Impex? If not may I suggest it!

Hi, I can't use Impex because the source board is not one that's supported. Just a note that I didn't get too involved researching Impex because of this limitation.

I read through the Impex docs and it also looks like there might be issues importing passwords from other systems as well - is there any more detail to this? Like, does phpBB store passwords in md5 encrypted format, and can Impex import these password types? If so, then it'd work for me - it's just that Impex isn't natively going to be able to port my board over.

So, in summary - can passwords from other systems that encrypt using simple md5 encryption be imported?

Thanks!

I've imported a couple of boards from phpbb to vb using impex.

What I'm saying is I am using a *custom* built board, not phpBB, but I had the thought maybe phpBB uses md5() encryption for it's passwords, much like my current board does.

Any thoughts on this password thing?

Have you actually enquired at vB.com regarding an import? It is possible that they may be able to help.

vb does a double conversion like this ;

Hash = MD5( MD5(password) . SALT )

Since you have the MD5(password) already, to convert your hashes to vb format you just need to do MD5 ( HASH . SALT ) - where HASH is your current MD5 hash and SALT is the users salt (stored in the user table). Obviously for a new import, you could create the salt yourself, and then store it in the user table at the same time as everything else.

Great! Thanks for your post. This is exactly the information I was looking for.

I will try it out and see how it works!