Secure Hash Algorithm

The Secure Hash Algorithm is one of a number of cryptographic hash functions published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology as a U.S. Federal Information Processing Standard. There are currently three generations of Secure Hash Algorithm:

• SHA-1 is the original 160-bit hash function. Resembling the earlier MD5 algorithm, this was designed by the National Security Agency (NSA) to be part of the Digital Signature Algorithm. Originally just called "SHA", it was withdrawn shortly after publication due to an undisclosed "significant flaw" and replaced by the slightly revised version SHA-1. The original withdrawn algorithm is now known by the retronym SHA-0.
• SHA-2 is a family of two similar hash functions, with different block sizes, known as SHA-256 and SHA-512. They differ in the word size; SHA-256 uses 32-bit words where SHA-512 uses 64-bit words. There are also truncated versions of each standardized, known as SHA-224 and SHA-384. These were also designed by the NSA.
• SHA-3 is a future hash function standard still in development. This is being chosen in a public review process from non-government designers. An ongoing NIST hash function competition is scheduled to end with the selection of a winning function, which will be given the name SHA-3, in 2012.

The corresponding standards have been FIPS PUB 180 (original SHA), FIPS PUB 180-1 (SHA-1), FIPS PUB 180-2 (SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384, and SHA-512), FIPS PUB 180-3 (SHA-1, SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, and SHA-512).

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