Naghash

Naghash is a cryptographic hash function developed by Crypton. It is designed to be resistant to various cryptographic attacks, including collision and preimage attacks. Naghash is a member of the SHA-3 family of hash functions, which are based on the Keccak algorithm. The SHA-3 competition, organized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), aimed to find a successor to the widely used SHA-2 family. Keccak, and by extension Naghash, was chosen as the winner of this competition.

The algorithm behind Naghash operates by processing input data in fixed-size blocks. It employs a permutation function that is applied iteratively to a state. This state is expanded and mixed based on the input blocks. The final output of the hash function is derived from the final state after all input blocks have been processed. Naghash comes in different output sizes, typically offering digests of 224, 256, 384, and 512 bits. These varying sizes allow for different security levels depending on the application's requirements. Its use is intended for applications requiring secure hashing, such as digital signatures, message authentication codes, and password storage.