HighwayHash
HighwayHash is a fast keyed hash/pseudorandom function developed by Jyrki Alakuijala and Jan Wassenberg. The stated design goals are high-throughput mixing and low-cost finalization. An open-source (Apache 2 license) reference implementation was published in March 2016.
Overview
HighwayHash computes 64, 128 or 256-bit digests of variable-length inputs, using a 256-bit seed/key. It processes 32 bytes at a time using AVX-2 SIMD instructions. For 1 KiB blocks, the reported[1] throughput is 0.24 cycles per byte. This is more than 10 times as fast as cryptographic hashes in the ECRYPT hash benchmark.[2]
HighwayHash is not claimed to be a cryptographic hash, but the authors have undertaken preliminary cryptanalysis[3] and claim resistance against differential, length-extension and rotational attacks.
The mixing multiplies 32-bit halves of the input with internal state, yielding a 64-bit result which is permuted and added to the state. The finalization involves four mixing rounds for 64-bit digests. For 128-bit digests, finalization uses six mixing rounds. And for 256-bit digests, finalization uses ten mixing rounds.
Applications
Suggested applications of HighwayHash include:
- pseudorandom number generation, e.g. to assign items to bins for A/B tests
- replacing larger data with hash 'fingerprints'
- authenticating short-lived messages such as RPCs
- data structures resistant to hash-flooding attacks.
Naming
The name HighwayHash is similar to other hashes developed within Google: CityHash and FarmHash.
See also
References
- ↑ Jyrki Alakuijala, Jan Wassenberg (2017-01-24). "HighwayHash description". https://github.com/google/highwayhash/blob/master/README.md.
- ↑ "eBACS: ECRYPT Benchmarking of Cryptographic Systems". http://bench.cr.yp.to/results-hash.html.
- ↑ Jyrki Alakuijala, Bill Cox, Jan Wassenberg (2017-02-07). "Fast keyed hash/pseudo-random function using SIMD multiply and permute". https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.06257.
External links
- Jyrki Alakuijala, Jan Wassenberg. "HighwayHash on Github: fast mixing". https://github.com/google/highwayhash.
- "Google Open Source Blog (release announcement)". http://google-opensource.blogspot.ch/2016/03/new-algorithms-may-lower-cost-of-secure.html.
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