The secure hash algorithm (SHA) is the set of hash functions designed by the NSA. There are
three SHA algorithms known as SHA-0, SHA-1, and SHA-2, respectively. SHA-1 is the most
popular hash function among the SHA algorithms and is the most widely adopted in commercial
products. There have been some weaknesses discovered in SHA-1, which prompted the creation
of a much stronger SHA-2, and a SHA-3 is also under development and will be chosen based on
a competition somewhere between 2008 and 2012.
The SHA-0 was published as a specification by NIST in the year 1993. This was superseded
in 1995, by SHA-1, which corrected some of the flaws of SHA-0. SHA-1 and SHA-0 generated a
160-bit hash value (message digest) from a variable-length message or file.
SHA-2 was created to overcome of the weaknesses of SHA-1. This consists of the SHA-224,
SHA-256, SHA-384, and SHA-512 algorithms, where the lengths of the message digests are
expressed in the numbers succeeding the word SHA. The NSA has recommended that the use of
SHA-1 be discontinued because of a known flaw in the algorith
Its good to know about the basics of this algorithm with the technical detail. I am familiar with its working but this is the thing which I wanted to know. You have given a nice introduction about how it came out. Thanks.
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