How to Choose the Password Encoder Algorithm Dynamically

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Usually, the same password encoder is used for all users by configuring it to apply to all instances of a specific class:

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# app/config/security.yml
security:
    # ...
    encoders:
        Symfony\Component\Security\Core\User\User: sha512

Another option is to use a "named" encoder and then select which encoder you want to use dynamically.

In the previous example, you've set the sha512 algorithm for Acme\UserBundle\Entity\User. This may be secure enough for a regular user, but what if you want your admins to have a stronger algorithm, for example bcrypt. This can be done with named encoders:

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# app/config/security.yml
security:
    # ...
    encoders:
        harsh:
            algorithm: bcrypt
            cost: 15

This creates an encoder named harsh. In order for a User instance to use it, the class must implement EncoderAwareInterface. The interface requires one method - getEncoderName() - which should return the name of the encoder to use:

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// src/Acme/UserBundle/Entity/User.php
namespace Acme\UserBundle\Entity;

use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\User\UserInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\Encoder\EncoderAwareInterface;

class User implements UserInterface, EncoderAwareInterface
{
    public function getEncoderName()
    {
        if ($this->isAdmin()) {
            return 'harsh';
        }

        return null; // use the default encoder
    }
}

If you created your own password encoder implementing the PasswordEncoderInterface, you must register a service for it in order to use it as a named encoder:

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# app/config/security.yml
security:
    # ...
    encoders:
        app_encoder:
            id: 'app.password_encoder_service'

This creates an encoder named app_encoder from a service named app.password_encoder_service.

This work, including the code samples, is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license.
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