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Message digest

nounverified·updated May 9, 2026

A digital signature that uniquely identifies data and has the property that changing a single bit in the data will cause a completely different message digest to be generated.

polysemousMWENISTIR 7298: Glossary of Key Information Security Terms, Revision 2

Senses

ISACA Cybersecurity Glossary

A smaller extrapolated version of the original message created using a message digest algorithm

NISTIR 7298: Glossary of Key Information Security Terms, Revision 2

The result of applying a hash function to a message. Also known as a “hash value” or “hash output”.

NISTIR 7298: Glossary of Key Information Security Terms, Revision 2sense 3 pending review

A cryptographic checksum, typically generated for a file that can be used to detect changes to the file. Synonymous with hash value/result.

Classifications

Entity Type

Data85%llm-generatedllm:claude-haiku-4-5
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Sensitivity

60%llm-generatedllm:claude-haiku-4-5
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Information Class

70%llm-generatedllm:claude-haiku-4-5
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Variants

plural
Message digests
possessive
Message digest's
pluralpossessive
Message digests'