Is it possible to decode a hash?

Hash functions are built in a way that it's very easy to generate a hash / fingerprint for a text, but almost impossible to decode the hash back to the original text.

What is a Hash?

A hash, or hash function is a function that can be used to convert data of any size to a much smaller size. It's like a fingerprint of the data. The result of a hash function are called hash code, digest, hash value or simply hash. If the data changes just a little bit, the resulting hash will change completely. Until now it was very difficult to reconstruct data just from the hash value. Hash Toolkit has built a giant database of precomputed inputs and their corresponding hashes. With that database it is possible to reverse / decrypt / reconstruct a hash into it's initial form in super fast way. More information can be found in here: Hash function. In cryptography, a hash function is a algorithm that is mapping data of any size to a string of a fixed size. The input is called message or simply input string. The fixed-size string function output is known as the hash or the message digest. Hash functions used in cryptography have the following key properties:

• It's simple, easy and practical (fast) to compute the hash, but "difficult or impossible to re-generate the original input if only the hash value is known."
• It's difficult to create an initial input that would match a specific desired output.
• Therefore hashing is a One way mechanism: The data that was hashed can not be reversed practically or be "unhashed".

What can I do with hashes?

• Integrity: Hashes are used to make sure that a message or file has not been changed during transfer.
• Authentication: Hashes are used in authentication protocols to make sure that passwords are not stored in plain text. Instead only the hash of the password is stored in the database. As part of the authentication process the password in plain text is hashed using a hash function. The output is then compared with the previously hashed value in the database. If both hashes are the same, the user entered the correct password.
• Security: During a "data breach", so the unintentional release of secure or private/confidential information, in most cases passwords, hashes are often released into the public.
• Safety: To make sure your own password is save, try to reverse your own password with Generator. DO ONLY USE YOUR OWN PASSWORDS.