Many hash iterations: append salt every time?

Question

I have used unsalted md5/sha1 for long time, but as this method isn\'t really secure (and is getting even less secure as time goes by) I decided to switch to a salted sha512

Answer 1

The reason for iterative hashing is to make process as slow as possible. So you can do even better: use different salts for each iteration. It can be done by encrypting you original data again and again on each iteration with fixed key and XORing with salt value.