Have I Been Pwned

The Have I Been Pwned plugin helps protect user accounts by preventing the use of passwords that have been exposed in known data breaches. It uses the Have I Been Pwned API to check if a password has been compromised.

Installation

Add the plugin to your auth config

auth.ts

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth"
import { haveIBeenPwned } from "better-auth/plugins"

export const auth = betterAuth({
    plugins: [
        haveIBeenPwned() 
    ]
})

Usage

When a user attempts to create an account or update their password with a compromised password, they'll receive the following default error:

{
  "code": "PASSWORD_COMPROMISED",
  "message": "The password you entered has been compromised. Please choose a different password."
}

Custom password flows

Use isPasswordCompromised to check passwords in server-side flows that do not use Better Auth endpoints.

import { isPasswordCompromised } from "better-auth/plugins/haveibeenpwned"

const compromised = await isPasswordCompromised(password)
if (compromised) {
    throw new Error("Please choose a password that has not been compromised")
}

The function only sends the first five characters of the password's SHA-1 hash to Have I Been Pwned. It throws an APIError if the service cannot complete the check.

Options

`enabled`

Enable or disable password checks against the HIBP database. Useful for skipping checks in development or testing without removing the plugin. Defaults to true.

auth.ts

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth"
import { haveIBeenPwned } from "better-auth/plugins"

const auth = betterAuth({
    plugins: [
        haveIBeenPwned({
            enabled: process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production'
        })
    ]
})

`customPasswordCompromisedMessage`

Customize the error message shown when a compromised password is detected.

auth.ts

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth"
import { haveIBeenPwned } from "better-auth/plugins"

const auth = betterAuth({
    plugins: [
        haveIBeenPwned({
            customPasswordCompromisedMessage: "Please choose a more secure password."
        })
    ]
})

Security Notes

Only the first 5 characters of the password hash are sent to the API
The full password is never transmitted
Provides an additional layer of account security

On this page