Module Overview

What You’ll Learn

• Explain why plain-text passwords are never acceptable, even for a small project
• Hash and verify passwords correctly with bcrypt
• Build a real user registration flow around a hashed password

💡 Why this matters: Every project so far in this track has had no concept of a user account at all. This module is the true starting point of authentication, storing a password safely, the foundation every login flow in the rest of this course is built on.

What’s Covered

• Why plain-text passwords are dangerous, and what a real data breach looks like with and without hashing.
• Hashing with bcrypt, salting, hashing, and verifying passwords correctly.
• A user model, storing a hashed password alongside a real user account.
• A registration endpoint, wiring hashing into a real Express route.

Hands-On

By the end of this module, you’ll have a real registration endpoint that hashes passwords correctly before they’re ever stored, and never stores or logs a plain-text password anywhere.

Next module: turning a stored user into an actual logged-in session.