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Encyclopedia > Hash collision

In computer science, a hash collision or hash clash is a situation that occurs when two distinct inputs into a hash function produce identical outputs. Computer science, or computing science, is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems. ... A hash function is a reproducible method of turning some kind of data into a (relatively) small number that may serve as a digital fingerprint of the data. ...


All hash functions have potential collisions, though with a well-designed hash function, collisions should occur less often (compared with a poorly designed function) or be more difficult to find. In certain specialized applications where a relatively small number of possible inputs are all known ahead of time it is possible to construct a perfect hash function which maps all inputs to different outputs. However, many hash functions, including most cryptographic hash functions, produce a fixed size output from an arbitrarily long message. In such a design, there will always be collisions, because any given hash has to correspond to a very large number of possible inputs. Perfect hash functions are hash functions which guarantee O(1) operations complexity when used in a hash table. ... In cryptography, a cryptographic hash function is a hash function with certain additional security properties to make it suitable for use as a primitive in various information security applications, such as authentication and message integrity. ...

Contents

In searching

Main article: Hash table

An efficient method of searching can be to process a lookup key using a hash function, then take the resulting hash value and then use it as an index into an array of data. The resulting data structure is called a hash table. As long as different keys map to different indices, lookup can be performed in constant time. When multiple lookup keys are mapped to identical indices, however, a hash collision occurs. The most popular ways of dealing with this are chaining (building a linked list of values for each array index), and open addressing (searching other array indices nearby for an empty space). Both of these, however, degrade the worst-case lookup complexity to linear time of the number of elements. In computer science, a hash table is a data structure that speeds up searching for information by a particular aspect of that information, called a key. ... In computer science, a hash table is a data structure that speeds up searching for information by a particular aspect of that information, called a key. ... In computational complexity theory, constant time refers to the computation time of a problem when the time needed to solve that problem doesnt depend on the size of the data it is given as input. ... In computer science, a linked list is one of the fundamental data structures, and can be used to implement other data structures. ... In computational complexity, an algorithm is said to take linear time, or O(n) time, if the time it requires is proportional to the size of the input, which is usually denoted n. ...


Collision resistance

Given: A hash function H, two passwords x and y.


Weak collision resistance: for a given x, it is hard to find a y neq x such that H(x) = H(y). A user inputs a value, in this example a password, called initial value (x). If the hash function H is weakly collision resistant, the probability of finding a second password with the same hash value as the initial one is negligible in the output length of the hash function. In mathematics, the Colombeau algebra is an algebra introduced with the aim of constructing an improved theory of distributions, in which multiplication is not problematic. ...



Strong collision resistance: it is hard to find any x and y such that H(x) = H(y). If the hash function H is strongly collision resistant, the probability of finding any two passwords with the same hash value is negligible in the output length of the hash function. In mathematics, the Colombeau algebra is an algebra introduced with the aim of constructing an improved theory of distributions, in which multiplication is not problematic. ...


In cryptography

One desirable property of cryptographic hash functions is that it is computationally infeasible to find a collision. The value of a hash function can be used to certify an input is unchanged by publishing the signed value of the hash if it is not feasible to produce a collision. Feasible in this context refers to any algorithm with an asymptotic running time polynomial in the output length of the hash function, which is usually much faster than a brute-force birthday attack. The German Lorenz cipher machine, used in World War II for encryption of very high-level general staff messages Cryptography (or cryptology; derived from Greek κρυπτός kryptós hidden, and the verb γράφω gráfo write or λεγειν legein to speak) is the study of message secrecy. ... In cryptography, a cryptographic hash function is a hash function with certain additional security properties to make it suitable for use as a primitive in various information security applications, such as authentication and message integrity. ... A digital signature or digital signature scheme is a type of asymmetric cryptography used to simulate the security properties of a signature in digital, rather than written, form. ... A birthday attack is a type of cryptographic attack which exploits the mathematics behind the birthday paradox, making use of a space-time tradeoff. ...


The process of finding two arbitrary values whose hashes collide is called a collision attack; the process of finding one arbitrary value whose hash collides with another, given hash is called a preimage attack. A successful preimage attack is a much more serious break than a successful collision attack. In cryptography, a preimage attack on a cryptographic hash differs from a collision attack. ...


See also

The inspiration for the name of the principle: pigeons in holes. ...

References

External links

The German Lorenz cipher machine, used in World War II for encryption of very high-level general staff messages Cryptography (or cryptology; derived from Greek κρυπτός kryptós hidden, and the verb γράφω gráfo write or λεγειν legein to speak) is the study of message secrecy. ... The history of cryptography begins thousands of years ago. ... Close-up of the rotors in a Fialka cipher machine Cryptanalysis (from the Greek kryptós, hidden, and analýein, to loosen or to untie) is the study of methods for obtaining the meaning of encrypted information, without access to the secret information which is normally required to do so. ... This article is intended to be an analytic glossary, or alternatively, an organized collection of annotated pointers. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Encryption Decryption In cryptography, a block cipher is a symmetric key cipher which operates on fixed-length groups of bits, termed blocks, with an unvarying transformation. ... The operation of the keystream generator in A5/1, a LFSR-based stream cipher used to encrypt mobile phone conversations. ... A big random number is used to make a public-key/private-key pair. ... In cryptography, a cryptographic hash function is a hash function with certain additional security properties to make it suitable for use as a primitive in various information security applications, such as authentication and message integrity. ... A cryptographic message authentication code (MAC) is a short piece of information used to authenticate a message. ... A cryptographically secure pseudo-random number generator (CSPRNG) is a pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) with properties that make it suitable for use in cryptography. ... This article is about hidden messages. ...

  Results from FactBites:
 
PlanetMath: hashing (1665 words)
The invariance of hashing with respect to the character of the underlying data is one of the main reasons it is such a useful technique.
Collisions are the reason the hash function needs to spread the objects out in the hash table so they are distant from each other and “evenly” distributed.
An abstract hash table implementation, however, will have to go to extra lengths to ensure that the tombstone is an “out-of-band” value so that no extra restrictions are put on the values of the objects which the client can store in the hash table.
Cryptographic hash function - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (1761 words)
A typical use of a cryptographic hash would be as follows: Alice poses to Bob a tough math problem and claims she has solved it.
Hashes are used to identify files on peer-to-peer filesharing networks.
Such file hashes are often the top hash of a hash list or a hash tree which allows for additional benefits.
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