Cryptographic hash functions. Trends and challenges

Hash functions are important in cryptography due to their use in data integrity and message authentication. Different cryptographicimplementations rely on the performance and strength of hash functions to answer the need for integrity and authentication. This paper gives an overview of cryptographic hash functions used or evaluated today. Hash functions selected in NESSIE and CRYPTREC projects are shortly presented. SHA-3 selection initiative is alsointroduced.