Santos:CCNA Sec 210-260 OCG

Hashes

Hashing is a method used to verify data integrity.

A cryptographic hash function is a process that takes a block of data and creates a small fixed-sized hash value. It is a one-way function, meaning that if two different computers take the same data and run the same hash function, they should get the same fixed-sized hash value (for example, perhaps a 12-bit long hash). (Message digest 5 algorithm [MD5] is an example.) It is not possible (at least not realistically) to generate the same hash from a different block of data. This is referred to as collision resistance. The result of the hash is a fixed-length small string of data, and is sometimes referred to as the digest, message digest, or simply the hash.

An example of using a hash to ...