Hashing my way down town

What is a hash?

Hash functions can be used to encrypt data, or to generate a random number. A hash function is a function that takes a string as input and returns a string as output. The output is called a hash. The hash is a string of characters.

What is salting?

Salting is the process of adding a random string of characters to a password before it is hashed. This makes it more difficult for hackers to crack the hash.

How will this method develop?

By salting the hash even more as power scales, it is harder to crack the hash. This is because the salt is a random string of characters that is added to the password before it is hashed.

Hashing algorithms used today

The most common algorithms for sending data over the internet now are SHA-256 and SHA-3.

MD5 and SHA-1 are oldschool. MD5 was being cracked 10 years ago with ease by matching hashes to a database of known hashes. SHA-1 is also oldschool, it is weak to collision attacks.

Use 256 bit encryption for passwords, it’s widely used and it’s secure.

The Avalanche Effect

The reason why hashing is unique for security is because the hash will be totally different with just one bit of difference, not a byte, one bit.

If you change a single letter in a document using SHA-256 encryption, the hash will look entirely different which is called the avalanche effect. This happens with credit card codes, the last digit is a checksum, if you change the last digit, the hash will be entirely different.