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Security Beginner

What is Hashing?

A one-way function that converts input data into a fixed-size string of characters, used for data integrity and password storage.

Hash functions produce a unique, fixed-length digest from any input. Unlike encryption, hashing is irreversible — you cannot recover the original data from the hash. Any change in input produces a completely different hash.

Uses include password storage (bcrypt, Argon2), file integrity verification (SHA-256), digital signatures, and data deduplication. Never use MD5 or SHA-1 for security — they are considered broken.

Related Terms

SIEM (Security Information and Event Management)
A platform that collects, correlates, and analyzes security events from across an organization to detect threats and incidents.
Session Hijacking
An attack where an adversary takes over a legitimate user session by stealing or predicting the session identifier.
Webhook Signature Verification
A security mechanism that verifies webhook payloads are authentic and unmodified using cryptographic signatures.
DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service)
An attack that floods a target server or network with traffic from multiple sources to overwhelm it and deny service to legitimate users.
Encryption
The process of converting readable data into an unreadable format using algorithms, reversible only with the correct key.
RBAC (Role-Based Access Control)
An access control model where permissions are assigned to roles, and users are assigned to roles rather than getting permissions directly.
 View All Security Terms →