Advanced Hash Calculator Algorithms
Advanced Hash Calculator supports 32 cryptographic hash functions and checksums. Select the algorithm in Options > Settings > Hash Type; the selected algorithm is shown in the status bar. All values are shown as hexadecimal strings in one of four output formats (lowercase or uppercase, with or without spaces).
Cryptographic Hash Functions
| Algorithm | Digest | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| MD2 | 128 bits | Designed by Ronald Rivest (1989). Legacy, no longer considered secure. |
| MD4 | 128 bits | Rivest (1990). Used in eDonkey2000 / eMule (ed2k) and NTLM. Not secure. |
| MD5 | 128 bits | The most widely published file checksum (md5sum). Fine for detecting corruption, not for security. |
| SHA-1 | 160 bits | Designed by the NSA. Used by Git and many older protocols; collisions are known. |
| SHA-224 | 224 bits | SHA-2 family, truncated SHA-256. |
| SHA-256 | 256 bits | SHA-2 family. The most common checksum for software downloads today; used in TLS, code signing and Bitcoin. |
| SHA-384 | 384 bits | SHA-2 family, truncated SHA-512. |
| SHA-512 | 512 bits | SHA-2 family; fast on 64-bit processors. |
| SHA3-224, SHA3-256, SHA3-384, SHA3-512 | 224–512 bits | SHA-3 (FIPS 202), based on the Keccak sponge construction. |
| BLAKE2b | 512 bits | RFC 7693, optimized for 64-bit platforms. Faster than MD5 and as secure as SHA-3. |
| BLAKE2s | 256 bits | RFC 7693, optimized for 8- to 32-bit platforms. |
| BLAKE3 | 256 bits | Modern, very fast tree hash; same values as the b3sum tool. |
| RIPEMD-160 | 160 bits | European RIPE project; used in Bitcoin addresses and OpenPGP. |
| Tiger, Tiger2 | 192 bits | Anderson and Biham (1995); used in Tiger Tree Hash for file sharing. Tiger2 differs only in padding. |
| Whirlpool | 512 bits | Rijmen and Barreto; ISO/IEC 10118-3 standard. |
| GOST 34.11-94 | 256 bits | Former Russian national standard GOST R 34.11-94, based on the GOST 28147-89 block cipher. |
| Streebog-256, Streebog-512 | 256 / 512 bits | Current Russian standard GOST R 34.11-2012 (RFC 6986). |
| SM3 | 256 bits | Chinese national standard GB/T 32905-2016. |
Checksums and Fast Non-Cryptographic Hashes
These functions are much faster than cryptographic hashes and are excellent for detecting accidental corruption, but they must not be used to protect against deliberate tampering.
| Algorithm | Digest | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| CRC32 | 32 bits | Cyclic redundancy check used by ZIP, PNG, Ethernet and SFV files. |
| CRC32C | 32 bits | Castagnoli polynomial; used by iSCSI, SCTP, ext4, Btrfs and cloud storage. |
| CRC64 | 64 bits | CRC-64/XZ (ECMA-182 polynomial), as used by xz and 7-Zip. |
| Adler-32 | 32 bits | Mark Adler's checksum used by zlib. |
| xxHash32, xxHash64 | 32 / 64 bits | Extremely fast hashes by Yann Collet (seed 0). |
| xxHash3 | 64 bits | XXH3_64bits, the newest and fastest xxHash variant (seed 0). |
| MurmurHash3 | 128 bits | MurmurHash3_x64_128 by Austin Appleby (seed 0). |
| FNV-1a | 64 bits | Fowler–Noll–Vo hash, 64-bit variant. |
Which algorithm should I use?
- To verify a download, use the algorithm the publisher lists — usually SHA-256, sometimes MD5, SHA-1 or SHA-512.
- To create your own checksum lists with strong security, use SHA-256, SHA3-256 or BLAKE3.
- To quickly compare large numbers of files (backups, duplicate detection), use xxHash3 or BLAKE3.
