A cryptographic hash function is a mathematical algorithm that takes an input (or message) and produces a fixed-size string of bytes, typically represented in hexadecimal format. This output, known as a hash value or digest, is unique to the input data, which means that even a small change in the input will result in a significantly different hash value. Cryptographic hash functions are commonly used in various security applications such as digital signatures, password storage, and data integrity verification.
