Removing hashed password - cannot log in

EDIT: Semi-solved. I can now store my insecure passwords in my DB and also log in. Next step is to give it another attempt at creating a secure mechanism for forgotten passwords (along with md5 encryption).

I'm trying to remove the md5 hashing from my passwords, so I can easily send the user his password to his email, in case he forgets it (I tried several solutions to generate a new password using md5 encryption, but I failed. So I want to do it this simple - yet a bit insecure - way).

I have the following code which stores the password in the database in a hashed format. I can also log in with no trouble... however as mentioned, I want to remove the hashing. I removed

$new_password = password_hash($upass, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);

and changed '$new_password' to '$upass'.

When I look at my database, I can see a non-hashed password which is exactly what I want. However, I can no longer log with a nonhashed password. Isn't that strange? What am I possibly doing wrong?

Here's a snippet of my registration code.

include_once 'dbconnect.php';

if(isset($_POST['btn-signup']))
{
$uname = $MySQLi_CON->real_escape_string(trim($_POST['user_name']));
$email = $MySQLi_CON->real_escape_string(trim($_POST['user_email']));
$upass = $MySQLi_CON->real_escape_string(trim($_POST['password']));
$phone = $MySQLi_CON->real_escape_string(trim($_POST['phone']));

$new_password = password_hash($upass, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);

$check_email = $MySQLi_CON->query("SELECT user_email FROM users WHERE user_email='$email'");
$count=$check_email->num_rows;


if($count==0){


    $query = "INSERT INTO users(user_name,user_email,user_pass,user_phone) VALUES('$uname','$email','$new_password','$phone')";


    if($MySQLi_CON->query($query))
    {
        $msg = "<div class='alert alert-success'>
                    <span class='glyphicon glyphicon-info-sign'></span> &nbsp; successfully registered !
                </div>";
    }
    else
    {
        $msg = "<div class='alert alert-danger'>
                    <span class='glyphicon glyphicon-info-sign'></span> &nbsp; error while registering !
                </div>";
    }
}
else{


    $msg = "<div class='alert alert-danger'>
                <span class='glyphicon glyphicon-info-sign'></span> &nbsp; sorry email already taken !
            </div>";

}

$MySQLi_CON->close();

}

Solution 1:

Stop.

Do not even think about anything which allows you (as a developer) to somehow get the plain text password of your users.

The solution to the original problem is very easy and does not involve storing your user's passwords in plaintext. If a user forgets his password, you do the following:

• Create a TAN (a long random number) and save it in your DB.
• Send the TAN to your user (integrated in a URL of course).
• When the user clicks the URL, he ends up in your website at your "password reset" feature.
• You ask him for his mail address or user name (whatever you use to identify users) and a new password.
• You look up the TAN, verify that it is the correct mail address or user name and delete it.
• You hash up the new password and store it in your DB.

(Of course, this assumes that the attacker is not able to get the mail; you may think about any number of further measures to make it safer. A popular one are "secrets" like "name of your first pet" etc.; you could send them an SMS, whatever... but that's another story).

At no point whatsoever are you handling plain text passwords, this is a total no-go and very neglient.