A Beginner’s Guide to Hashing Algorithms: Explained and Demonstrated in Python

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Hashing algorithms are a type of computer program that take an input (or “message”) and return a fixed-size string of characters, which is usually a “digest” that is unique to the original input. Some common examples of hashing algorithms include SHA-256, SHA-1, and MD5. These algorithms are commonly used to verify the integrity of data, to index data in hash tables, for cryptography and password storage.

Some of the most widely-used and well-known hashing algorithms include:

  1. SHA-256 (Secure Hash Algorithm 256-bit): This is a member of the SHA-2 family of algorithms and is often used for digital signatures and other applications that require a secure, one-way hash.
  2. SHA-1 (Secure Hash Algorithm 1): This algorithm is similar to SHA-256, but it produces a 160-bit hash value. It is less secure than SHA-256 and is being phased out in favor of the latter.
  3. MD5 (Message-Digest algorithm 5): This is a widely-used algorithm that produces a 128-bit hash value. It is considered to be less secure than SHA-1 and SHA-256 and is no longer recommended for use in most applications.
  4. BLAKE2: This is a cryptographic hash function that is designed to be faster and more secure than SHA-256 or MD5.
  5. bcrypt: This algorithm is specifically designed for password storage and can handle the hashing of passwords with a high degree of security.
  6. Scrypt: This algorithm is designed to be more computationally expensive to perform, making it harder for an attacker to use brute force methods to determine the original password.

It’s worth noting that the security of a hash algorithm can become compromised over time as computing power increases, so it’s always good to stay informed and use the most up-to-date algorithms available.

here’s a brief explanation and a Python implementation for each of the hashing algorithms mentioned:

SHA-256

SHA-256: This algorithm takes an input (or “message”) and produces a fixed-size 256-bit (32-byte) hash value. It’s considered to be very secure and is widely used for digital signatures and other applications that require a secure, one-way hash.

import hashlib

def sha256(message):
    """Return the SHA-256 hash of the input message"""
    return hashlib.sha256(message.encode()).hexdigest()

SHA-1

SHA-1: This algorithm is similar to SHA-256 but it produces a 160-bit hash value. It’s considered to be less secure than SHA-256 and it’s being phased out in favor of the latter.

import hashlib

def sha1(message):
    """Return the SHA-1 hash of the input message"""
    return hashlib.sha1(message.encode()).hexdigest()

MD5

MD5: This algorithm takes an input (or “message”) and produces a fixed-size 128-bit hash value. It’s considered to be less secure than SHA-1 and SHA-256 and it’s no longer recommended for use in most applications.

import hashlib

def md5(message):
    """Return the MD5 hash of the input message"""
    return hashlib.md5(message.encode()).hexdigest()

BLAKE2

BLAKE2: This is a cryptographic hash function, which is faster and more secure than the popular SHA-3.

import hashlib

def blake2(message):
    """Return the BLAKE2 hash of the input message"""
    return hashlib.blake2b(message.encode()).hexdigest()

bcrypt

bcrypt: This algorithm is specifically designed for password storage and can handle the hashing of passwords with a high degree of security.

import bcrypt

def bcrypt_hash(password):
    """Return the bcrypt hash of the input password"""
    salt = bcrypt.gensalt()
    return bcrypt.hashpw(password.encode(), salt)

Scrypt

Scrypt: This algorithm is designed to be more computationally expensive to perform, making it harder for an attacker to use brute force methods to determine the original password.

import os
import scrypt

def scrypt_hash(password):
    """Return the scrypt hash of the input password"""
    salt = os.urandom(16)
    return scrypt.hash(password.encode(), salt)

Please note that the above examples are just basic demonstrations of the algorithms and they should be used with care in real-world applications. For example, in the case of password storage, it’s best to use a library that provides an easy and secure way to store the passwords, such as passlib or bcrypt.

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