Encryption method creating users

Hello,

I am developing a control panel for our support team and I want to be
able to use the same username and password that RT is using. I am
running RT 3.4 with a MySQL backend. I am going to write the control
panel in PHP though my question is does anyone know what encryption
method is being used when authenticating/creating new RT users?

I thought it would be md5sum though I dont see any special characters.

Thanks,
Jason B.