A function that produces a fixed-length value from arbitrary data, used for things like tamper detection.
A one-way function that produces a fixed-length output (a hash value) from an input of any length. The same input always yields the same output, and reversing it is computationally infeasible. It's designed so that even a single-bit change to the input drastically changes the entire hash value -- known as the avalanche effect -- which is what makes tampering reliably detectable.
© 2026 ITBGM