SHA-256
E248473
SHA-256 is a widely used cryptographic hash function from the SHA-2 family that produces a 256-bit hash value for securing data integrity and authentication.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| SHA-256 canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2236404 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: SHA-256 Context triple: [RFC 6668, definesUseOf, SHA-256]
-
A.
MD5
MD5 is a widely known but now cryptographically broken 128-bit hash function formerly used for checksums, data integrity, and security applications.
-
B.
Merkle–Damgård construction
The Merkle–Damgård construction is a fundamental method for building collision-resistant cryptographic hash functions from fixed-size compression functions, used in many classic hash algorithms like MD5 and SHA-1.
-
C.
SHA
SHA is the IATA airport code for Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, a major domestic and regional aviation hub serving Shanghai, China.
-
D.
Merkle tree
A Merkle tree is a cryptographic data structure that uses a tree of hash values to efficiently and securely verify the integrity and consistency of large sets of data.
-
E.
Merkle
Merkle is a surname most prominently associated with Ralph Merkle, a pioneering computer scientist and cryptographer known for his foundational work in public-key cryptography and Merkle trees.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: SHA-256 Target entity description: SHA-256 is a widely used cryptographic hash function from the SHA-2 family that produces a 256-bit hash value for securing data integrity and authentication.
-
A.
MD5
MD5 is a widely known but now cryptographically broken 128-bit hash function formerly used for checksums, data integrity, and security applications.
-
B.
Merkle–Damgård construction
The Merkle–Damgård construction is a fundamental method for building collision-resistant cryptographic hash functions from fixed-size compression functions, used in many classic hash algorithms like MD5 and SHA-1.
-
C.
SHA
SHA is the IATA airport code for Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, a major domestic and regional aviation hub serving Shanghai, China.
-
D.
Merkle tree
A Merkle tree is a cryptographic data structure that uses a tree of hash values to efficiently and securely verify the integrity and consistency of large sets of data.
-
E.
Merkle
Merkle is a surname most prominently associated with Ralph Merkle, a pioneering computer scientist and cryptographer known for his foundational work in public-key cryptography and Merkle trees.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (52)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
SHA-2 family member
ⓘ
cryptographic hash function ⓘ hash function ⓘ |
| belongsToFamily | SHA-2 ⓘ |
| category | Merkle–Damgård construction ⓘ |
| collisionAttackComplexity | approximately 2^128 operations (idealized) ⓘ |
| definedInStandard |
FIPS 180-4
ⓘ
surface form:
FIPS 180-2
FIPS 180-4 ⓘ |
| designedBy | National Security Agency ⓘ |
| hasBlockSize | 512 bits ⓘ |
| hasDigestSize | 256 bits ⓘ |
| hasNumberOfRounds | 64 ⓘ |
| hasSecurityProperty |
collision resistance
ⓘ
preimage resistance ⓘ second preimage resistance ⓘ |
| hasWordSize | 32 bits ⓘ |
| inputType | arbitrary-length bit strings ⓘ |
| introducedYear | 2001 ⓘ |
| outputEncodingCommon |
base64
ⓘ
hexadecimal ⓘ |
| outputType | fixed-length bit string ⓘ |
| partOf | SHA-2 ⓘ |
| predecessor | SHA-1 ⓘ |
| preimageAttackComplexity | approximately 2^256 operations (idealized) ⓘ |
| producesOutputLength |
256 bits
ⓘ
32 bytes ⓘ |
| recommendedBy | NIST for many applications ⓘ |
| relatedAlgorithm |
SHA-224
ⓘ
SHA-384 ⓘ SHA-2 ⓘ
surface form:
SHA-512
|
| standardizedBy |
National Institute of Standards and Technology
ⓘ
surface form:
NIST
|
| status | widely deployed ⓘ |
| supersededBy |
SHA-384 (for higher security level)
ⓘ
SHA-512 (for higher security level) ⓘ |
| usedFor |
blockchain hashing
ⓘ
data integrity ⓘ digital signatures ⓘ file integrity checking ⓘ message authentication ⓘ password hashing (with additional mechanisms) ⓘ |
| usedIn |
Bitcoin
ⓘ
IPsec ⓘ PGP ⓘ SSH ⓘ SSL ⓘ TLS ⓘ other cryptocurrencies ⓘ |
| usesCompressionFunction | Davies–Meyer-like construction ⓘ |
| usesOperations |
bitwise logical functions
ⓘ
bitwise rotations ⓘ bitwise shifts ⓘ modular addition ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: SHA-256 Description of subject: SHA-256 is a widely used cryptographic hash function from the SHA-2 family that produces a 256-bit hash value for securing data integrity and authentication.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.