Keccak-256 Hash Generator

About

SHA-3 is the latest member of the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) family of standards, released by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on August 5, 2015. SHA-3 is different from the MD5-like structure of SHA-1 and SHA-2, though it is part of the same series of standards.

Keccak is a cryptographic primitive family that includes SHA-3. It was designed by Guido Bertoni, Joan Daemen, Michaël Peeters, and Gilles Van Assche, building upon RadioGatún. Keccak's authors have proposed additional uses for the function, not (yet) standardized by NIST, including a stream cipher, an authenticated encryption system, a "tree" hashing scheme for faster hashing on certain architectures, and AEAD ciphers Keyak and Ketje.

Keccak is based on a novel approach called sponge construction. Sponge construction is a way of using a wide random function or random permutation to absorb any amount of data and output any amount of data, while still acting as a pseudorandom function with regard to all the previous inputs. This leads to great flexibility.

There is no current plan to remove SHA-2 from the revised Secure Hash Standard. The purpose of SHA-3 is to provide a substitution for SHA-2 in current applications if necessary, and to improve the robustness of NIST's overall hash algorithm toolkit.

The creators of the Keccak algorithms and the SHA-3 functions propose using the faster KangarooTwelve function with adjusted parameters, and a new tree hashing mode that eliminates extra overhead for small message sizes.

Keccak is a cryptographic hash function that was designed by Guido Bertoni, Joan Daemen, Michaël Peeters, and Gilles Van Assche. It is based on the sponge construction, which allows it to be very flexible in terms of its input and output sizes. Keccak has been adopted as the hash function for the SHA-3 standard.

The Keccak cryptographic mechanism was created by Gilles Van Assche, Guido Bertoni, Joan Daemen, and Michael Peeters as an upgrade to the security offered by the older SHA-1 and SHA-2 hash functions. However, the algorithm can also be used for other functions.

The Keccak function started to be created in 2007, after NIST's announcement of a public competition and testing procedure for a new cryptographic hash function. This was necessary to overcome the possible weaknesses of the prior SHA-1 and SHA-2 functions.

The Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) is a collection of cryptographic hash functions that were published by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). SHA-1 and SHA-2, the earlier versions of the algorithm, are very similar and were created by the US National Security Agency (NSA).

Although conceptual attacks on SHA-1 were carried out in 2004 and made public in 2005, the transition from SHA-1 to SHA-2 was extremely slow. NIST announced SHA-2 as the new standard hash function to be used a few years later, in 2011, but it wasn't until early 2017 that a considerable number of developers and computer scientists made the switch.

In February 2017, Google disclosed an effective SHA-1 collision attack. This led to SHA-1 no longer being regarded as safe, and its use is now banned.

Keccak has the same hash lengths as SHA-2, but they are still distinct. This is why Keccak is considered to be SHA-3.

Keccak was chosen by NIST because it includes a unique, safer, and more reliable structure than the other algorithms. The SHA-3 algorithm is based on sponge functions, as opposed to the Merkle Damgrd construction used by SHA-1 and SHA-2.

Although there have been no major SHA-2 attacks until today, there is still a belief that hash functions could be breached eventually. If this happens, it will take a long time to establish a new one.

There have been successful breaches of SHA-1, however, these took place back in 2004 and 2005. This was the stepping stone for the idea to develop a new standard function. In 2012, Keccak was added to the collection of SHAs as SHA-3.

While SHA-2 is an older version, it is still used because it is considered safe. For example, it is employed by various cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin as part of the mining process.

SHA-3 is seeing an increasing adoption because it is safe and has a low level of attack possibility. However, this is not the only reason. In the future, there will be even more new and innovative hash algorithms being created. This is necessary because the cryptography industry is always evolving and solving numerous issues.