highwayhash

Node.js implementation of Google's HighwayHash.

Based on SipHash, it is believed to be robust against hash flooding and timing attacks because memory accesses are sequential and the algorithm is branch-free.

This makes it suitable for random number generators and hash tables storing untrusted data.

64-bit hash values are platform independent and will not change for a given input. This is important for applications that write hashes to persistent storage.

SIMD intrinsics (AVX2, SSE4.1) will be used when available at runtime.

Expect up to 8 million operations/second, depending on the length of the input and the output type required.

As JavaScript lacks native support for 64-bit integers, hash values are made available as hex, string, Buffer and low/high 32-bit unsigned integer types.

If the input to be hashed is trusted, a cryptographically-insecure alternative is FarmHash.

Pre-compiled binaries are provided for the most common platforms.

Requirements

• x64 CPU
• Node.js v10+

Installation

npm install highwayhash

yarn add highwayhash

Usage

const highwayhash = require('highwayhash');

const key = require('crypto').randomBytes(32);

const input = Buffer.from('The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy sleeping dog');

const hashAsString = highwayhash.asString(key, input);
// Example: '15456351453344120596'

const hashAsHexString = highwayhash.asHexString(key, input);
// Example: '143f2b6cc1fd7fd6'

const hashAsUInt32Low = highwayhash.asUInt32Low(key, input);
// Example: 1814773524

const hashAsUInt32High = highwayhash.asUInt32High(key, input);
// Example: 3598712257

const hashAsBuffer = highwayhash.asBuffer(key, input);
// Example: <Buffer 14 3f 2b 6c c1 fd 7f d6>

API

• key is a Buffer containing 32 bytes (256-bit)
• input is a Buffer to calculate a hash value of

asString(key, input)

Returns a String representing the 64-bit unsigned integer hash value of input.

asHexString(key, input)

Returns a hexadecimal String representing the 64-bit unsigned integer hash value of input. This is equivalent to but much faster than asBuffer().toString('hex').

asBuffer(key, input)

Returns a Buffer representing the 64-bit unsigned integer hash value of input.

This method is much slower then asString so only use this method when the hash value needs to be in a Buffer.

asUInt32Low(key, input)

Returns a Number representing the low 32-bits of the 64-bit unsigned integer hash value of input.

asUInt32High(key, input)

Returns a Number representing the high 32-bits of the 64-bit unsigned integer hash value of input.

Benchmarks

• Intel i3-4170
• Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS
• Node.js v6.9.4
• Cryptographically strong pseudo-random input via OpenSSL's RAND_bytes

Input size / bytes	Hash function	Hash size / bits	Output data type	Ops/sec
100	md5	128	Buffer	577,384
100	sha256	256	Buffer	516,888
100	FarmHash	32	32-bit int	3,870,645
100	FarmHash	64	string	1,332,578
100	HighwayHash	32	32-bit int (low)	5,534,449
100	HighwayHash	32	32-bit int (high)	5,626,820
100	HighwayHash	64	string	2,583,533
100	HighwayHash	64	hex string	3,477,324
1000	md5	128	Buffer	343,203
1000	sha256	256	Buffer	259,395
1000	FarmHash	32	32-bit int	3,836,197
1000	FarmHash	64	string	1,219,728
1000	HighwayHash	32	32-bit int (low)	5,531,220
1000	HighwayHash	32	32-bit int (high)	5,609,610
1000	HighwayHash	64	string	2,616,148
1000	HighwayHash	64	hex string	3,520,123
10000	md5	128	Buffer	67,178
10000	sha256	256	Buffer	44,260
10000	FarmHash	32	32-bit int	1,462,781
10000	FarmHash	64	string	832,073
10000	HighwayHash	32	32-bit int (low)	3,949,544
10000	HighwayHash	32	32-bit int (high)	3,974,480
10000	HighwayHash	64	string	2,613,013
10000	HighwayHash	64	hex string	3,537,567

git clone https://github.com/lovell/highwayhash
cd highwayhash
npm install && npm test
cd bench
npm install && npm test

Licence

Copyright 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 Lovell Fuller.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

Copyright 2015, 2016, 2017 Google Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.