SHA-224 hash generator
SHA-224 is part of the SHA-2 family standardised in FIPS 180-4. It uses the same compression function as SHA-256 but starts from different initial values and keeps only 224 bits of the result. This SHA-224 hash generator computes that digest for any text or file and prints it as 56 hex characters.
Example
Input:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dogSHA-224 hash:
730e109bd7a8a32b1cb9d9a09aa2325d2430587ddbc0c38bad911525Compare it with SHA-256 of the same sentence, d7a8fbb307d7809469ca9abc…. Because the initial values differ, SHA-224 is not simply the first 56 characters of SHA-256 — the two outputs are unrelated.
SHA-224 at a glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Digest size | 224 bits (28 bytes, 56 hex characters) |
| Internal state | 256 bits; 64 rounds on 32-bit words |
| Collision resistance | About 112 bits |
| Standard | Added to FIPS 180-2 in 2004 (Change Notice); now FIPS 180-4 |
| Status | Secure |
Because the tool lists SHA-256 in the same table as the SHA-224 result, you can see at a glance that the two digests share nothing, despite coming from the same compression function.
Why a 224-bit hash?
SHA-224 was introduced to match the 112-bit security level of three-key Triple DES and 2048-bit RSA, so that systems could use a hash whose strength matched their other algorithms without wasting bandwidth. Its collision resistance of about 2¹¹² operations is still far beyond practical attack.
A side benefit of truncation: because SHA-224 does not output its full internal state, it resists the length-extension attacks that affect SHA-256 and SHA-512 when they are misused as MACs. HMAC remains the right way to build a MAC, though.
When to use it
- Protocols or smart-card profiles that specify SHA-224, such as some DSA and ECDSA configurations with 224-bit keys.
- Interoperability testing against systems that emit SHA-224 digests.
- Situations where a slightly shorter digest than SHA-256 is useful but SHA-2 compliance is required.
For most new work, SHA-256 is the more common and better-supported choice; on 64-bit machines, SHA-512/224 gives the same output length with SHA-512’s speed. Do not use any fast hash for passwords — use bcrypt or Argon2id instead.
In code: Python hashlib.sha224(data).hexdigest(), OpenSSL openssl dgst -sha224 file, or sha224sum file on Linux. Hashing here runs locally in your browser.
Verifying a file against a SHA-224 value
SHA-224 checksums are less common than SHA-256, and not every system can compute them out of the box:
- Linux:
sha224sum file.iso, orsha224sum -c file.iso.sha224to check a published checksum file. - macOS:
shasum -a 224 file.iso. - Windows: PowerShell's
Get-FileHashandcertutil -hashfiledo not offer SHA-224. Use OpenSSL, or open the file here with the File source; it is hashed locally.
To compare, paste the published value into Compare with an expected hash. A 56-character hex value can also be SHA-512/224 or SHA3-224, and the tool tells you if your value matches one of those instead.