The city identity store hashes passwords and adds a unique salt per account. What security problem does salting primarily address?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Without salt, two people using the same password share the same hash—like matching footprints in a catalog thieves already printed. A unique salt mixes fresh grit into each hash so precomputed rainbow tables stop being a free cheat sheet.
Full Explanation
Salting mixes unique, per-credential data into the password hashing process so identical passwords do not yield identical stored digests. That defeats or greatly weakens precomputed attacks such as rainbow tables. Salting is not a substitute for MFA, does not make hashes reversible for recovery, and is unrelated to backup compression.