MySQL PhpMyAdmin - Unrecognized Keyword CONCAT - sql

Question

I'm practicing creating a table of password hashes in MySQL using phpMyAdmin. The SQL code I try to enter is:
Edit: using the new code I am using:
INSERT INTO `user` (`username`, `salt`, `passwordhash`)
VALUES ('username', 'a1b2c3d4e5f6g', SHA2(CONCAT('password', 'a1b2c3d4e5f6g'), 256)));
After SHA2, everything is an error, with the first one saying "Unrecognized Keyword. (near CONCAT)." The rest all say "Unrecognized Token" and then whatever string, so it appears all these problems are just caused by CONCAT. Is there another way to concatenate strings?

Answer 1

You should have got
Error in query (1582): Incorrect parameter count in the call to native
function 'SHA2'
This way it is working for me
CREATE TABLE `user` (
`username` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
`salt` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
`passwordhash` varchar(255) NOT NULL
) ENGINE='InnoDB' COLLATE 'utf16_bin';
INSERT INTO `user` (`username`, `salt`, `passwordhash`)
VALUES ('username', 'a1b2c3d4e5f6g', SHA2('test',CONCAT('password', 'a1b2c3d4e5f6g')));
SELECT * FROM user;
username salt passwordhash
username a1b2c3d4e5f6g 9f86d081884c7d659a2feaa0c55ad015a3bf4f1b2b0b822cd15d6c15b0f00a08
username a1b2c3d4e5f6g 9f86d081884c7d659a2feaa0c55ad015a3bf4f1b2b0b822cd15d6c15b0f00a08

Answer 2

As per your new code: you have an extra bracket, again in , 256)));.
Here:
INSERT INTO `user` (`username`, `salt`, `passwordhash`)
VALUES ('username', 'a1b2c3d4e5f6g', SHA2(CONCAT('password', 'a1b2c3d4e5f6g'), 256));
This and with all the comments I left up there.
Edit: The following, as per going through the MySQL manual on SHA2() could be a related issue.
As per https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/encryption-functions.html#function_sha2
This function works only if MySQL has been configured with SSL support. See Section 6.4, “Using Secure Connections”.
SHA2() can be considered cryptographically more secure than MD5() or SHA1().
SHA2() was added in MySQL 5.5.5.
So, make sure that the MySQL version you are using matches it or is higher than that. If it is lower than 5.5.5, then SHA2() isn't available for you to use. That, or it could be an sysadmin / security issue on the server.
Contact the sysadmin at your school if that is where you are running this off from, as it seems from what you said in comments - "I'm following a school tutorial that said to use SHA2". Either way, the MySQL version is important here.
To check the version of MySQL installed, use the following syntax in phpmyadmin:
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE "%version%";
Instead of what you used being SELECT VERSION();.

Answer 3

according to MySQL documentation:
SHA2(str, hash_length)
Calculates the SHA-2 family of hash functions (SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, and SHA-512). The first argument is the cleartext string to be hashed. The second argument indicates the desired bit length of the result, which must have a value of 224, 256, 384, 512, or 0 (which is equivalent to 256). If either argument is NULL or the hash length is not one of the permitted values, the return value is NULL. Otherwise, the function result is a hash value containing the desired number of bits. See the notes at the beginning of this section about storing hash values efficiently
You need to provide a second parameter to the SHA2() function (the hash length) and this argument must be one of the values 224, 256, 384, 512, or 0.
INSERT INTO `user` (`username`, `salt`, `passwordhash`) VALUES ('username', 'a1b2c3d4e5f6g', SHA2(CONCAT('password', 'a1b2c3d4e5f6g'),256));