A.4. Hash Functions
A hash function maps bit strings of any length to bit strings of a fixed length n. For practical uses, hash functions should be easy to compute, that is, computing the hash of x should be doable in time polynomial in the size of x.
Since a hash function H maps an infinite set to a finite set, there must exist pairs (x1, x2) of distinct strings with H(x1) = H(x2). Such a pair is called a collision for H. For cryptographic applications (for example, for generating digital signatures), it should be computationally infeasible to find collisions for hash functions. To elaborate this topic further we mention the following two desirable properties of hash functions used in cryptography.
Definition A.3.
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A hash function H is called ... |
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