HAVAL

HAVAL is a cryptographic hash function that turns a message of any length into a fixed-size fingerprint, and it is unusual among hash functions of its period because the user chooses how long the fingerprint is and how much work is done to make it. The output can be 128, 160, 192, 224 or 256 bits, and the number of processing rounds can be set to 3, 4 or 5, which gives fifteen variants of one design. Fingerprints are usually written as hexadecimal numbers of 32 to 64 digits. This flexibility sets it apart from MD5, which produces only one output size. HAVAL was invented in 1992 by Yuliang Zheng, Josef Pieprzyk and Jennifer Seberry. Its security record is poor: in August 2004 a team led by Xiaoyun Wang announced collisions for the 128-bit, 3-round variant, and later use of at least that variant is considered questionable.