HashWert

HashWert (also written as Hashwert) is the value produced by a hash function from an input, serving as a compact, fixed-length representation of the data. HashWerte are used to verify integrity, index information, or serve as identifiers in various data-processing tasks. The same input always yields the same HashWert, while different inputs typically yield different HashWerte in practice.

Key properties include determinism, fixed length, and computational efficiency. Most cryptographic hash functions are designed to be one-way and collision-resistant, meaning it should be infeasible to recover the input from the hash and to find two distinct inputs that produce the same HashWert. In practice, the strength depends on the chosen function; some older algorithms have been broken or weakened.

Common hash functions include MD5 (128-bit output), SHA-1 (160-bit), SHA-256 (256-bit), SHA-512, and the SHA-3 family. MD5 and SHA-1 are no longer recommended for security-sensitive tasks due to discovered vulnerabilities; SHA-256 or SHA-3 variants are preferred.

Applications include data integrity verification (checksums), digital signatures, and indexing or deduplication in storage systems. For password storage, salts and password-stretching algorithms (such as PBKDF2, bcrypt, scrypt, or Argon2) are used to derive a HashWert that resists offline attacks.

In German-speaking contexts, HashWert is the general term for the hash value; some projects or products may stylize it as HashWert. See also cryptographic hash function, checksum, and hash-based message authentication code (HMAC).