Category: 6. Cryptography Hash functions

This is a 512-bit hash function. Applications of Hash Functions There are two direct applications of hash function based on its cryptographic properties. Password Storage Hash functions provide protection to password storage. Data Integrity Check Data integrity check is a most common application of the hash functions. It is used to generate the checksums on…

Let us briefly see some popular hash functions − Message Digest (MD) MD5 was most popular and widely used hash function for quite some years. Secure Hash Function (SHA) Family of SHA comprise of four SHA algorithms; SHA-0, SHA-1, SHA-2, and SHA-3. Though from same family, there are structurally different. RIPEMD The RIPEMD is an…

In order to be an effective cryptographic tool, the hash function is desired to possess following properties − Design of Hashing Algorithms At the heart of a hashing is a mathematical function that operates on two fixed-size blocks of data to create a hash code. This hash function forms the part of the hashing algorithm.…

Hash functions are extremely useful and appear in almost all information security applications. A hash function is a mathematical function that converts a numerical input value into another compressed numerical value. The input to the hash function is of arbitrary length but output is always of fixed length. Values returned by a hash function are…