What is SHA-224?
SHA-224 is a cryptographic hash function that produces a 224-bit hash value (56 hexadecimal characters). It's part of the SHA-2 family designed by the NSA and published by NIST. SHA-224 provides a middle ground between SHA-1 (160-bit) and SHA-256 (256-bit), offering balanced security and efficiency for many applications.
SHA-2 Family Members
- SHA-224: 224-bit output (56 hex characters)
- SHA-256: 256-bit output (64 hex characters)
- SHA-384: 384-bit output (96 hex characters)
- SHA-512: 512-bit output (128 hex characters)
Technical Specifications
- Output: 224 bits (28 bytes) or 56 hexadecimal characters
- Input: Any size input data
- Block Size: 512 bits
- Word Size: 32 bits
- Rounds: 64 rounds of hashing operations
Security Properties
- Collision Resistance: No known attacks, computationally infeasible
- Preimage Resistance: Extremely difficult to reverse engineer
- Second Preimage Resistance: Can't find two inputs with same hash
- Industry Standard: Widely adopted and trusted worldwide
When to Use SHA-224
SHA-224 is ideal when you need more security than SHA-1 but don't require the full strength of SHA-256. It's commonly used for certificate generation, digital signatures, and data integrity verification. While SHA-256 is more popular, SHA-224 offers a good balance for applications where storage or bandwidth optimization matters slightly more than maximum security margins.