When Linux uses the MD5 algorithm to hash passwords, it uses a different salt everytime. ie if I were to hash the word "cgkanchi" multiple times, I'd get a different hash each time. How does the passwd program know which salt to use when verifying the password? In other words, where is this "salt" value stored? It can't be in the shadow file or in the hash itself, because that would nullify the whole point of having the salt. So where???

Cheers,
cgkanchi