# encrypts password using
# SHA-1 algorithm
my $sha1 = Digest::SHA1->new;

# reset algorithm
$sha1->hexdigest;

# encrypt
$salt = 1658087940;
my $secret = $sha1->sha1_hex($passwd . $salt);
[download]

Run in a shell script the hash is the same each time the salt and password are the same (as you said). However, when inserted into a web page (HTML::Mason but, on the same machine) the hash is different each time.

I suspect there is somehow a bug in how you're getting the data from the web. Try printing out the hex encoding of the orginal string before you send it to the hash function to make sure you're putting in the exact same data each time.

----
I wanted to explore how Perl's closures can be manipulated, and ended up creating an object system by accident.
-- Schemer

: () { :|:& };:

Note: All code is untested, unless otherwise stated

Even if I hard code them:

# encrypts password using
# SHA-1 algorithm
my $sha1 = Digest::SHA1->new;

# reset algorithm
$sha1->hexdigest;

# encrypt
$passwd = 'password';
$salt = 1658087940;
my $secret = $sha1->sha1_hex($passwd . $salt);
[download]

The hash is still different each time.

Neil Watson
watson-wilson.ca