A Comparative Study of Hash Algorithms in Cryptography

In Network Security and Cryptography, hash functions play a very important role. To check the Integrity, Authenticity of information or data transmitting between the Seder and receiver party hash algorithms are used. Digital signature also uses the hash algorithm. Hash function used for key generation in Symmetric and Asymmetric Key Cryptosystems. Different algorithms provide different level of security depending on how difficult is to break them. The most well-known hash algorithms are SHA-1, SHA-2, SHA-3, MD4, MD5 and Whirlpool etc. This paper discusses importance of hash functions, description about various well known hash functions, and comparative analysis of various hash algorithms.