A Critical Review of Cryptographic Hash Functions

Abstract: The cryptographic hash function literature has numerous hash function definitions and hash function requirements, and many of them disagree. This survey talks about the various definitions, and takes steps towards cleaning up the literature by explaining how the field has evolved and accurately depicting the research aims people have today.

Keywords: Message Digest (MD�S), Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA), Pseudo Random Function Families (PRFs), Message Authentication Codes (MACs).