PWDCOMPARE (Transact-SQL)

Article
02/28/2023

Applies to: SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance

Hashes a password and compares the hash to the hash of an existing password. PWDCOMPARE can be used to search for blank SQL Server login passwords or common weak passwords.

Transact-SQL syntax conventions

Syntax

PWDCOMPARE ( 'clear_text_password'  
   , password_hash   
   [ , version ] )

Note

To view Transact-SQL syntax for SQL Server 2014 (12.x) and earlier versions, see Previous versions documentation.

Arguments

' clear_text_password '
Is the unencrypted password. clear_text_password is sysname (nvarchar(128)).

password_hash
Is the encryption hash of a password. password_hash is varbinary(128).

version
Obsolete parameter that can be set to 1 if password_hash represents a value from a login earlier than SQL Server 2000 (8.x) that was migrated to SQL Server 2005 (9.x) or later but never converted to the SQL Server 2000 (8.x) system. version is int.

Caution

This parameter is provided for backwards compatibility, but is ignored because password hash blobs now contain their own version descriptions. This feature will be removed in a future version of SQL Server. Avoid using this feature in new development work, and plan to modify applications that currently use this feature.

Return Types

int

Returns 1 if the hash of the clear_text_password matches the password_hash parameter, and 0 if it does not.

Remarks

The PWDCOMPARE function is not a threat against the strength of password hashes because the same test could be performed by trying to log in using the password provided as the first parameter.

PWDCOMPARE cannot be used with the passwords of contained database users. There is no contained database equivalent.

Permissions

PWDENCRYPT is available to public.

CONTROL SERVER permission is required to examine the password_hash column of sys.sql_logins.

Examples

A. Identifying logins that have no passwords

The following example identifies SQL Server logins that have no passwords.

SELECT name FROM sys.sql_logins   
WHERE PWDCOMPARE('', password_hash) = 1 ;

B. Searching for common passwords

To search for common passwords that you want to identify and change, specify the password as the first parameter. For example, execute the following statement to search for a password specified as password.

SELECT name FROM sys.sql_logins   
WHERE PWDCOMPARE('password', password_hash) = 1 ;