Question

What is difference between rainbow tables and salting?

Answer 1

A rainbow table is a precomputed table for reversing cryptographic hash functions, usually for cracking password hashes. Tables are usually used in recovering a password (or credit card numbers, etc.) up to a certain length consisting of a limited set of characters. It is a practical example of a space–time tradeoff, using less computer processing time and more storage than a brute-force attack which calculates a hash on every attempt, but more processing time and less storage than a simple lookup table with one entry per hash. Use of a key derivation function that employs a salt makes this attack infeasible.

Salt (cryptography) In cryptography, a salt is random data that is used as an additional input to a one-way function that "hashes" data, a password or passphrase. Salts are closely related to the concept of nonce.

Answer 2

The Rainbow Effect is a phenomenon where someone viewing a projected image perceives flashes of color around the image.

Light enters a water droplet, slowing down and bending as it goes from air to denser water. The light reflects off the inside of the droplet, separating into its component wavelengths--or colors. When light exits the droplet, it makes a rainbow.