@exortek/password

Argon2id, scrypt, bcrypt, and PBKDF2 under one coherent API — plus a strength meter, CSPRNG-based generator and diceware passphrases, a policy validator, HMAC peppering with rotation, password history, and Have-I-Been-Pwned k-anonymity lookup. Built on node:crypto, zero required dependencies.

The two peer dependencies (argon2 and bcryptjs) are opt-in — you install only the algorithms you actually use.

What problem does this solve?

Every auth flow rewrites the same ~300 lines of password code, and most get one of these wrong:

• Algorithm choice. Bcrypt still fine? Scrypt or Argon2id better? PBKDF2 for FIPS? The right answer depends on threat model — the wrong answer is baked into every “hash your passwords” tutorial from 2016.
• Migration. You picked bcrypt in 2018 and want to move to Argon2id. Nobody ships a verify() that transparently routes across algorithms so you can rehash on the next login.
• Unicode normalization. "café" typed on iOS is one code point; typed on Android it’s two. They hash differently. Users get locked out on new devices and nobody knows why.
• 72-byte bcrypt trap. Bcrypt silently truncates input past 72 bytes. A 100-character passphrase hashes identically to its first 72 characters. Django and Passlib SHA-256 pre-hash to fix this; most Node tutorials don’t mention it.
• User enumeration. if (!user) return 401 short-circuits verify — attackers grade “email exists” vs “doesn’t” from response latency.
• Peppering. Everyone talks about it, nobody ships it. A DB dump alone becomes useless if the pepper lives in KMS — but you have to wire the HMAC and its rotation yourself.
• Strength scoring. Rolled by hand or pulled in a 400 KB zxcvbn dependency. Both wrong for a signup form that already runs on a hot path.

@exortek/password ships every one of these correctly with one API surface that’s tree-shakeable, zero-dep by default, and paces industry standards (OWASP 2024, PHC format, RFC 9106 for Argon2).

Quick tour

import { password } from '@exortek/password';
 
// Signup — pick your algo, hash, store the PHC string
const stored = await password.scrypt.hash(input);
// $scrypt$ln=17,r=8,p=1$…$…
 
// Login — auto-routes on stored hash format
const ok = await password.verify(input, user.pwHash);
if (!ok) return unauthorized();
 
// Silent migration — if params are behind current defaults, rehash on the fly
if (password.needsRehash(user.pwHash)) {
  await db.users.update(user.id, { pw_hash: await password.scrypt.hash(input) });
}

Every algorithm lives under its own namespace — no algorithm: 'scrypt' flag on a mega-hash function:

await password.argon2.hash(pw)     // → $argon2id$v=19$m=19456,t=2,p=1$…
await password.scrypt.hash(pw)     // → $scrypt$ln=17,r=8,p=1$…
await password.bcrypt.hash(pw)     // → $2b$12$…       (requires bcryptjs peer)
await password.pbkdf2.hash(pw)     // → $pbkdf2-sha256$i=600000$…

Package layout

Tree-shakers see through the umbrella, but if you’re on a strict bundle budget prefer the subpaths — they emit self-contained bundles with no router overhead.

Is it safe to trust?

• Standards. Argon2 (RFC 9106), scrypt (RFC 7914), PBKDF2 (RFC 8018 §5.2), bcrypt (original Provos–Mazières 1999 with the 2b format), PHC string format for portability across ecosystems.
• Defaults are OWASP 2024. Argon2id m=19MiB t=2 p=1, scrypt N=2^17, bcrypt 12 rounds, PBKDF2-SHA-256 600k iterations.
• No hand-rolled crypto. Scrypt and PBKDF2 delegate to Node’s OpenSSL bindings. Argon2 goes through the reference C implementation via the argon2 npm package. Bcrypt uses bcryptjs (pure JS, but the algorithm is 25 years old and well-audited).
• Timing-safe compare in every verify path (crypto.timingSafeEqual).
• 135 unit tests including PHC round-trip fuzz, RFC KAT vectors, and concurrent-verify race checks. yarn test from the workspace root exercises everything.

Next

• Install — peer setup for each backend
• Algorithms — argon2 / scrypt / bcrypt / pbkdf2 tuning
• Verify — auto-router + needsRehash
• Migration — silent rehash on login
• Timing defence — closing the user-enumeration side channel