Hashed passwords are NOT similar although the salt and password are similar I had created two users on Linux with the same exact passwords, but when I looked at the `/etc/shadow` file, I found that the hashed values look different, although the salt file is the same. (Please see below, `j9T` is the salt). Why the hashed passwords are NOT similar, although the slat and password are similar? # tail /etc/shadow Bob:$y$**j9T**$ewJ0HB756BZDnPjx7zzbm0$i39AKrfuQuvvoQJpujwWd7Z4bcZgN1l0IWeJsNmLzg7:19254:0:99999:7::: Bob:$y$**j9T**$pFF5c93UZvdFYD2nanxEO.$SMhaxtPUPEUZdZZx.b1tGmjXgM67nqBJgMk2sNP.5s4:19254:0:99999:7:::

The second field (`j9T`) is not the salt, it's the `param` (hash complexity parameter). You could read more information about the format of the hash here#Key_derivation_functions_supported_by_crypt) and here

You salt is actually the third field, and you can see it's different.

The actual hash is the fourth field.