Created Date: 9/15/2025 2:59:15 PM | User Level:

Overview

Passwords remain the first line of defense in any application, yet weak or leaked credentials are a prime target for attackers.

Brilliance CRM protects every user account with Argon2, a modern, memory-hard key derivation function (KDF) that sets the industry benchmark for password hashing.

What Is Argon2?

A password hash is a one-way cryptographic transformation of a password.

Instead of storing your password itself, Brilliance CRM stores only the Argon2 hash.

When you log in, your password is hashed again and compared to the stored hash—never revealed in plain text.

Argon2 makes brute-force attacks prohibitively expensive by using:

Memory-hard computations: attackers need large amounts of RAM as well as CPU/GPU power.
Configurable cost factors: time, memory, and parallelism settings can be tuned for the deployment environment.

Brilliance CRM Implementation

Algorithm: Argon2id (the hybrid mode recommended by modern security standards).
Unique salts: A cryptographically strong, random salt is generated for every password.
Parameter tuning: Time cost, memory cost, and parallelism are set to exceed current OWASP recommendations, balancing strong protection with responsive performance for end users.
Secure updates: Parameter values are periodically reviewed and can be raised as hardware capabilities evolve.

Key Use Cases

Password Hashing (Primary): Protects all Brilliance CRM user credentials.
Key Derivation: Suitable for generating cryptographic keys from passwords if needed for future encrypted data features.
Sensitive Data Hashing: Can optionally hash other identifiers or personally identifiable information (PII).

Advantages

Robust Security: High resistance to brute-force and side-channel attacks.
Tunable Parameters: Memory and time costs can be increased as computing power grows.
Parallel Processing: Efficient on multi-core servers.
Open Standard: Winner of the Password Hashing Competition and widely audited.
Quantum-Resistant Friendly: While not a quantum encryption algorithm itself, Argon2’s memory-hard design helps mitigate some risks posed by future quantum brute-force attacks, making it a strong foundation for post-quantum–aware security strategies.

Considerations

Resource Requirements: More CPU and memory intensive than legacy algorithms like MD5 or SHA-1 (a deliberate design choice for security).
Configuration Knowledge: Proper tuning is essential; Brilliance CRM manages this internally so administrators don’t have to.
Still Requires Good Hygiene: Strong, unique passwords and multi-factor authentication remain critical.

Industry Adoption

Major technology providers—including Google, Dropbox, and numerous password managers—trust Argon2 for password protection.

Brilliance CRM follows the same best-practice approach used across the security community.

Best Practices for Users

Even with Argon2 in place:

Create long, unique passphrases for each account.
Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) wherever possible.
Update passwords periodically and avoid re-use across different services.

Summary

Brilliance CRM employs Argon2id with strong, regularly reviewed parameters to provide state-of-the-art password protection. Combined with good password habits and MFA, Argon2 gives Brilliance CRM customers a robust, future-proof defense against password-based attacks.