Generate password hash I have an external application written in VB.NET that needs to add user accounts to a drupal database.

We tried posting to the /user/register but something is funky with that code and it is not working. I also considered using a RESTful API plugin but that has proven to be more work than we are capable of delivering on short notice.

Just when I figured we could:


Add a value to sequences table
Use that previous value as ID of next user


We now discover that we need some fancy smancy hashed password. I look into the code and see D7 uses sha512 but also some hashing salt -- which again is yet another drupal method which accepts the number or iterations to hash (or something to that effect).

If the VB app uses a sha512 on a password will this suffice with Drupal? Will uses be able to login?

Tips, comments, etc more than welcome :)

Alex
No - a simple sha512 wouldn't be the same because its lacking the "salt" added by Drupal that prevents the "ability to use pre-hashed lists of candidate passwords" against your database (among other things). Its a security improvement over D5/D6 where a simple md5 update query could reset a user's password. 

You might get more mileage out of connecting to the password-hash.sh script (in the scripts folder of your Drupal installation) in your VB script using whatever the equivalent to PHP exec() is in VB..