SHA-1

Encryption calculates a numeric footprint of 40 hexadecimal characters. The algorithm uses non linear functions, here are the 3 main ones:

$$ C(x,y,z) = (x \wedge y) \vee (\lnot x \wedge z) \\ P(x,y,z) = x \oplus y \oplus z \\ M(x,y,z) = (x \wedge y) \vee (x \wedge z) $$

With $ x,y,z $ portions of string to encode or fixed values among 0x67452301, 0xEFCDAB89, 0x98BADCFE, 0x10325476, 0xC3D2E1F0...

As encryption is a hashing based on nonlinear functions, there is no decryption method. This means that to retrieve the password corresponding to a sha-1 hash, there is no choice but to try all possible passwords!

Technically, this operation would take several thousand years, even on the most powerful computers in the world. However, the list of passwords used in real life is more restricted, and it becomes possible to precalculate the most likely fingerprints.

dCode uses its word databases (10 million potential passwords) to speed up this processing. However, if the password is rare, or combined with salting, it will probably not be found.

The hash is composed of 40 hexadecimal characters among 0123456789abcdef.

The database search can be complicated by inserting salt to the word (a prefix or a suffix, or both). Indeed, if it is already difficult but possible to precalculate the fingerprints of all the words, it becomes even more difficult to precalculate with all possible prefixes and suffixes.

Another (not recommended) variant is DOUBLE SHA1, that consists in applying SHA1 twice.

A rainbow table is a database of words with all the pre-computed hashes and stored in order to accelerate and be able to parallelize the calculations of fingerprints.

List of magic SHA-1 hashes:

Bonus SHA-1 like string that can also be evaluated at 0: 0e00000000000000000000081614617300000000 or 0e00000000000000000000721902017120000000

SHA1 stands for Secure Hash Algorithm

By the National Security Agency in 1995