sha224($pass.$salt)) Hash

What is sha224($pass.$salt))?

SHA-224 is a member of the SHA-2 (Secure Hash Algorithm 2) family, standardized as part of FIPS 180-4 by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2012. It extends the cryptographic hash function design of SHA-256 by reducing the output size from 256 bits to 224 bits, while maintaining the same internal structure—namely, a Merkle-Damgård construction with a compression function based on bitwise operations, modular arithmetic, and a fixed schedule of bit rotations and message expansions. The algorithm processes input data in 512-bit blocks, applying a series of non-linear transformations (Ch, Maj, and Σ operations) to message schedule values and round constants derived from the fractional parts of the fifth roots of the first 64 primes. While SHA-224 shares its core architecture with SHA-256, its shorter digest length makes it less suitable for cryptographic applications requiring collision resistance or security margins above 112 bits (as per the birthday paradox). Its primary use-case historically was as a lightweight alternative for non-security-critical checksums or as a building block in password hashing schemes, though modern best practices favor stronger variants like SHA-3 or Argon2 for sensitive data.

The format `sha224($pass.$salt)` is vulnerable to cracking primarily due to its susceptibility to brute-force and rainbow table attacks when used naively. Without a sufficiently long salt (ideally 128+ bits) or a slowdown mechanism (e.g., hashing iterations or memory-hard functions), attackers can exploit GPU/ASIC acceleration to compute hashes at rates exceeding 100 million per second. The 224-bit output provides only ~112 bits of effective security against collision attacks, making it inadequate for modern password storage where adversaries may leverage precomputed tables or optimized cracking tools like Hashcat. Additionally, the lack of a built-in keyed mode (unlike HMAC-SHA224) means the hash is vulnerable to length-extension attacks if concatenated inputs are involved. CPU/GPU optimizations further exacerbate the problem, as specialized hardware (e.g., FPGA-based hashers) can parallelize SHA-224 computations more efficiently than slower, memory-intensive algorithms like bcrypt. The combination of weak output size, no inherent slowdown, and compatibility with high-throughput hardware renders it unsuitable for secure password storage without augmentation.

Identifying sha224($pass.$salt)) Hashes

Identifying a hash blindly is often difficult because multiple algorithms can output strings of the exact same length. For example, a standard 32-character hexadecimal string could be MD5, NTLM, MD4, or LM. To definitively identify sha224($pass.$salt)), security researchers analyze the hash against a strict regular expression (regex) signature (shown above) to find structural matches.

How to Crack sha224($pass.$salt))

If you need to recover the plaintext password for a sha224($pass.$salt)) hash during a penetration test or forensics investigation, you must supply the correct module ID to your cracking software. Use the exact commands provided at the top of this page to target the hash successfully.