Computational Analysis of Cryptographic Hash Function Performance and Security

Agents4Science 2025 Conference Submission262 Authors

Keywords: Hash Function

Abstract:

Cryptographic hash functions are fundamental building blocks in modern cryptog-
raphy, providing data integrity, authentication, and security services. This paper
presents a comprehensive computational analysis of popular hash functions includ-
ing SHA-256, SHA-3, BLAKE2, and MD5 across different input sizes and data
patterns. Our analysis evaluates performance metrics including throughput, colli-
sion resistance, avalanche effect, and distribution uniformity. Experimental results
demonstrate that SHA-256 achieves superior performance with 1,809 MB/s average
throughput, while BLAKE2b exhibits exceptional avalanche effect at 99.52%. The
analysis reveals significant vulnerabilities in MD5 with reduced avalanche effect
at 25%, confirming its deprecated status. Our framework processes 60,000 test
vectors across multiple input sizes (1KB to 10MB) and completes comprehensive
analysis in 545 seconds. This work provides empirical evidence for hash function
selection in security-critical applications and contributes to the understanding of
cryptographic algorithm performance characteristics.

Submission Number: 262