SHA-256 Hash Generator Online Tool
SHA-256 hash function online with salt option
What is SHA256?
SHA-256 (Secure Hash Algorithm 256) is a one-way encryption algorithm.
It takes an input (or a "message") and returns a fixed length string of characters.
SHA256 Hashing Algorithm
As referenced above its a one-way hashing algorithm.
It was created by the National Security Agency (Agency) as part of U.S. goverment Capstone Project
The 256 in the name refers to the number of bits in the hash, in this case 32 bytes or 64 hexadecimal characters
Its a widely used and very secure hash function
What is one-way encryption?
One way encryption is an encryption that is very easy to compute into a hash but very hard to compute on the opposite direction (decrypt).
They are often used for password storage along with a salt to avoid brute force attacks.
What do we refer as salt in encryption?
Salt is used in encryption to add additional input to a one-way hash function.
The salt value gets concatenated with the input resulting in a new generated hash.
The reason being is to protect against brute force attacks which the attacker tries a list of pre-computed table of hashes.