Common Issues
security
My Users' Passwords Might Be Exposed
You just realized — or someone told you — that your app might not be storing user passwords safely. Maybe passwords are saved as plain text in the database, visible in logs, or sent without encryption. If anyone gets access to your database, they can see every user's actual password.
This is one of the most serious security problems an app can have. People reuse passwords across many sites, so if their password is exposed on your app, hackers can try it on their email, bank, and social media accounts too.
Even if no one has exploited this yet, you need to fix it before they do. The longer passwords sit unprotected, the greater the risk.
Error Messages You Might See
No obvious error — you discover this by checking your database or logs
Security audit warning: passwords stored in plaintext
SSL certificate missing
Mixed content warning
Common Causes
- Passwords stored as plain text — The app saves the actual password instead of a scrambled (hashed) version that can't be read back
- Passwords visible in database — You can open your database and read users' passwords in a column, which means they're not encrypted
- Passwords sent over unencrypted connections — Your login page uses HTTP instead of HTTPS, so passwords travel over the internet unprotected
- Passwords logged in server logs — The app accidentally writes passwords to log files that might be accessible to others
- Using homemade encryption — Instead of using proven security methods, the AI used a custom approach that isn't actually secure
How to Fix It
- Check how passwords are stored — Look in your database. If you can read the actual passwords, they're not properly protected
- Implement proper password hashing — Have a developer add bcrypt or Argon2 hashing so passwords are scrambled before storage
- Force all users to reset their passwords — Once proper hashing is in place, require everyone to create a new password
- Make sure your site uses HTTPS — Check that your website URL starts with https:// and that your hosting has an SSL certificate
- Check server logs — Search your logs for any password data and configure logging to exclude sensitive information
- Consider using a trusted auth service — Services like Supabase Auth, Firebase Auth, or Auth0 handle password security properly so you don't have to
Real developers can help you.
Nam Tran
10 years as fullstack developer
Milan Surelia
Milan Surelia is a Mobile App Developer with 5+ years of experience crafting scalable, cross-platform apps at 7Span and Meticha. At 7Span, he engineers feature-rich Flutter apps with smooth performance and modern UI. As the Co-Founder of Meticha, he builds open-source tools and developer-focused products that solve real-world problems.
Expertise:
💡 Developing cross-platform apps using Flutter, Dart, and Jetpack Compose for Android, iOS, and Web.
🖋️ Sharing insights through technical writing, blogging, and open-source contributions.
🤝 Collaborating closely with designers, PMs, and developers to build seamless mobile experiences.
Notable Achievements:
🎯 Revamped the Vepaar app into Vepaar Store & CRM with a 2x performance boost and smoother UX.
🚀 Launched Compose101 — a Jetpack Compose starter kit to speed up Android development.
🌟 Open source contributions on Github & StackOverflow for Flutter & Dart
🎖️ Worked on improving app performance and user experience with smart solutions.
Milan is always happy to connect, work on new ideas, and explore the latest in technology.
Mehdi Ben Haddou
- Founder of Chessigma (1M+ users) & many small projects
- ex Founding Engineer @Uplane (YC F25)
- ex Software Engineer @Amazon and @Booking.com
MFox
Full-stack professional senior engineer (15+years). Extensive experience in software development, qa, and IP networking.
Luca Liberati
I work on monoliths and microservices, backends and frontends, manage K8s clusters and love to design apps architecture
Jen Jacobsen
I’m a Full-Stack Developer with over 10 years of experience building modern web and mobile applications. I enjoy working across the full product lifecycle — turning ideas into real, well-built products that are intuitive for users and scalable for businesses.
I particularly enjoy building mobile apps, modern web platforms, and solving complex technical problems in a way that keeps systems clean, reliable, and easy to maintain.
Omar Faruk
As a Product Engineer at Klasio, I contributed to end-to-end product development, focusing on scalability, performance, and user experience.
My work spanned building and refining core features, developing dynamic website templates, integrating secure and reliable payment gateways, and optimizing the overall system architecture.
I played a key role in creating a scalable and maintainable platform to support educators and learners globally.
I'm enthusiastic about embracing new challenges and making meaningful contributions.
Victor Denisov
Developer
Yovel Cohen
I got a lot of experience in building Long-horizon AI Agents in production, Backend apps that scale to millions of users and frontend knowledge as well.
Jared Hasson
Full time lead founding dev at a cyber security saas startup, with 10 yoe and a bachelor's in CS. Building & debugging software products is what I've spent my time on for forever
Describe what's wrong in plain English. No technical knowledge needed.
Get HelpFrequently Asked Questions
How can I tell if passwords are stored securely?
Look at your database. If you can read the actual passwords (like 'mypassword123'), they're NOT secure. Properly hashed passwords look like long random strings of characters (like '$2b$10$xJ3...') that are impossible to read back.
Should I tell my users about this?
Yes. Be honest and transparent. Tell them you discovered a security issue, that you've fixed it, and ask them to change their password on your app AND on any other site where they used the same password.