The @noble/hashes npm package provides a collection of cryptographic hash functions implemented in pure JavaScript with a focus on security and performance. It is part of the noble family of packages, which are designed to be secure, efficient, and easy to use.

What are @noble/hashes's main functionalities?

SHA-256 Hashing

This feature allows you to compute the SHA-256 hash of an input. The code sample demonstrates how to hash a Uint8Array of bytes and print the resulting hash as a hex string.

"use strict";
const { sha256 } = require('@noble/hashes/sha256');
const hash = sha256(new Uint8Array([1, 2, 3]));
console.log(Buffer.from(hash).toString('hex'));

SHA-1 Hashing

This feature enables SHA-1 hashing. The code sample shows how to hash a Uint8Array and output the hash in hexadecimal format.

"use strict";
const { sha1 } = require('@noble/hashes/sha1');
const hash = sha1(new Uint8Array([1, 2, 3]));
console.log(Buffer.from(hash).toString('hex'));

RIPEMD-160 Hashing

This feature provides RIPEMD-160 hashing capability. The code sample illustrates hashing a byte array and converting the hash to a hex string.

"use strict";
const { ripemd160 } = require('@noble/hashes/ripemd160');
const hash = ripemd160(new Uint8Array([1, 2, 3]));
console.log(Buffer.from(hash).toString('hex'));

HMAC

This feature allows for the creation of HMACs (Hash-based Message Authentication Codes) using a specified hash function. The code sample demonstrates creating an HMAC with SHA-256.

"use strict";
const { hmac } = require('@noble/hashes/hmac');
const { sha256 } = require('@noble/hashes/sha256');
const key = new Uint8Array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5]);
const message = new Uint8Array([6, 7, 8, 9, 0]);
const signature = hmac(sha256, key, message);
console.log(Buffer.from(signature).toString('hex'));

Other packages similar to @noble/hashes

noble-hashes

Audited & minimal JS implementation of hash functions, MACs and KDFs.

🔒 Audited by an independent security firm
🔻 Tree-shakeable: unused code is excluded from your builds
🏎 Fast: hand-optimized for caveats of JS engines
🔍 Reliable: chained / sliding window / DoS tests and fuzzing ensure correctness
🔁 No unrolled loops: makes it easier to verify and reduces source code size up to 5x
🦘 Includes SHA, RIPEMD, BLAKE, HMAC, HKDF, PBKDF, Scrypt, Argon2 & KangarooTwelve
🪶 48KB for everything, 4.8KB (2.36KB gzipped) for single-hash build

Take a glance at GitHub Discussions for questions and support. The library's initial development was funded by Ethereum Foundation.

This library belongs to noble cryptography

noble cryptography — high-security, easily auditable set of contained cryptographic libraries and tools.

Zero or minimal dependencies
Highly readable TypeScript / JS code
PGP-signed releases and transparent NPM builds
All libraries: ciphers, curves, hashes, post-quantum, 4kb secp256k1 / ed25519
Check out homepage for reading resources, documentation and apps built with noble

Usage

npm install @noble/hashes

deno add jsr:@noble/hashes

deno doc jsr:@noble/hashes # command-line documentation

We support all major platforms and runtimes. For React Native, you may need a polyfill for getRandomValues. A standalone file noble-hashes.js is also available.

// import * from '@noble/hashes'; // Error: use sub-imports, to ensure small app size
import { sha256 } from '@noble/hashes/sha2.js'; // ESM & Common.js
sha256(Uint8Array.from([0xca, 0xfe, 0x01, 0x23])); // returns Uint8Array

// Available modules
import { sha256, sha384, sha512, sha224, sha512_224, sha512_256 } from '@noble/hashes/sha2.js';
import { sha3_256, sha3_512, keccak_256, keccak_512, shake128, shake256 } from '@noble/hashes/sha3.js';
import { cshake256, turboshake256, kmac256, tuplehash256, k12, m14, keccakprg } from '@noble/hashes/sha3-addons.js';
import { blake3 } from '@noble/hashes/blake3.js';
import { blake2b, blake2s } from '@noble/hashes/blake2.js';
import { blake256, blake512 } from '@noble/hashes/blake1.js';
import { sha1, md5, ripemd160 } from '@noble/hashes/legacy.js';
import { hmac } from '@noble/hashes/hmac.js';
import { hkdf } from '@noble/hashes/hkdf.js';
import { pbkdf2, pbkdf2Async } from '@noble/hashes/pbkdf2.js';
import { scrypt, scryptAsync } from '@noble/hashes/scrypt.js';
import { argon2d, argon2i, argon2id } from '@noble/hashes/argon2.js';
import * as utils from '@noble/hashes/utils'; // bytesToHex, bytesToUtf8, concatBytes...

sha2: sha256, sha384, sha512
sha3: FIPS, SHAKE, Keccak
sha3-addons: cSHAKE, KMAC, K12, M14, TurboSHAKE
blake, blake2, blake3 | legacy: sha1, md5, ripemd160
MACs: hmac | sha3-addons kmac | blake3 key mode
KDFs: hkdf | pbkdf2 | scrypt | argon2
utils
Security | Speed | Contributing & testing | License

Implementations

Hash functions:

sha256(): receive & return Uint8Array
sha256.create().update(a).update(b).digest(): support partial updates
blake3.create({ context: 'e', dkLen: 32 }): sometimes have options
support little-endian architecture; also experimentally big-endian
can hash up to 4GB per chunk, with any amount of chunks

sha2: sha256, sha384, sha512 and others

import { sha224, sha256, sha384, sha512, sha512_224, sha512_256 } from '@noble/hashes/sha2.js';
const res = sha256(Uint8Array.from([0xbc])); // basic
for (let hash of [sha256, sha384, sha512, sha224, sha512_224, sha512_256]) {
  const arr = Uint8Array.from([0x10, 0x20, 0x30]);
  const a = hash(arr);
  const b = hash.create().update(arr).digest();
}

See RFC 4634 and the paper on truncated SHA512/256.

sha3: FIPS, SHAKE, Keccak

import {
  keccak_224, keccak_256, keccak_384, keccak_512,
  sha3_224, sha3_256, sha3_384, sha3_512,
  shake128, shake256,
} from '@noble/hashes/sha3.js';
for (let hash of [
  sha3_224, sha3_256, sha3_384, sha3_512,
  keccak_224, keccak_256, keccak_384, keccak_512,
]) {
  const arr = Uint8Array.from([0x10, 0x20, 0x30]);
  const a = hash(arr);
  const b = hash.create().update(arr).digest();
}
const shka = shake128(Uint8Array.from([0x10]), { dkLen: 512 });
const shkb = shake256(Uint8Array.from([0x30]), { dkLen: 512 });

See FIPS-202, Website.

Check out the differences between SHA-3 and Keccak

sha3-addons: cSHAKE, KMAC, K12, M14, TurboSHAKE

import {
  cshake128, cshake256,
  k12,
  keccakprg,
  kmac128, kmac256,
  m14,
  parallelhash256,
  tuplehash256,
  turboshake128, turboshake256
} from '@noble/hashes/sha3-addons.js';
const data = Uint8Array.from([0x10, 0x20, 0x30]);
const ec1 = cshake128(data, { personalization: 'def' });
const ec2 = cshake256(data, { personalization: 'def' });
const et1 = turboshake128(data);
const et2 = turboshake256(data, { D: 0x05 });
 // tuplehash(['ab', 'c']) !== tuplehash(['a', 'bc']) !== tuplehash([data])
const et3 = tuplehash256([utf8ToBytes('ab'), utf8ToBytes('c')]);
// Not parallel in JS (similar to blake3 / k12), added for compat
const ep1 = parallelhash256(data, { blockLen: 8 });
const kk = Uint8Array.from([0xca]);
const ek10 = kmac128(kk, data);
const ek11 = kmac256(kk, data);
const ek12 = k12(data);
const ek13 = m14(data);
// pseudo-random generator, first argument is capacity. XKCP recommends 254 bits capacity for 128-bit security strength.
// * with a capacity of 254 bits.
const p = keccakprg(254);
p.feed('test');
const rand1b = p.fetch(1);

Full NIST SP 800-185: cSHAKE, KMAC, TupleHash, ParallelHash + XOF variants
Reduced-round Keccak:
- 🦘 K12 aka KangarooTwelve
- M14 aka MarsupilamiFourteen
- TurboSHAKE
KeccakPRG: Pseudo-random generator based on Keccak

blake, blake2, blake3

import { blake224, blake256, blake384, blake512 } from '@noble/hashes/blake1.js';
import { blake2b, blake2s } from '@noble/hashes/blake2.js';
import { blake3 } from '@noble/hashes/blake3.js';

for (let hash of [
  blake224, blake256, blake384, blake512,
  blake2b, blake2s, blake3
]) {
  const arr = Uint8Array.from([0x10, 0x20, 0x30]);
  const a = hash(arr);
  const b = hash.create().update(arr).digest();
}

// blake2 advanced usage
const ab = Uint8Array.from([0x01]);
blake2s(ab);
blake2s(ab, { key: new Uint8Array(32) });
blake2s(ab, { personalization: 'pers1234' });
blake2s(ab, { salt: 'salt1234' });
blake2b(ab);
blake2b(ab, { key: new Uint8Array(64) });
blake2b(ab, { personalization: 'pers1234pers1234' });
blake2b(ab, { salt: 'salt1234salt1234' });

// blake3 advanced usage
blake3(ab);
blake3(ab, { dkLen: 256 });
blake3(ab, { key: new Uint8Array(32) });
blake3(ab, { context: 'application-name' });

Blake1 is legacy hash, one of SHA3 proposals. It is rarely used anywhere. See pdf.
Blake2 is popular fast hash. blake2b focuses on 64-bit platforms while blake2s is for 8-bit to 32-bit ones. See RFC 7693, Website
Blake3 is faster, reduced-round blake2. See Website & specs

legacy: sha1, md5, ripemd160

SHA1 (RFC 3174), MD5 (RFC 1321) and RIPEMD160 (RFC 2286) legacy, weak hash functions. Don't use them in a new protocol. What "weak" means:

Collisions can be made with 2^18 effort in MD5, 2^60 in SHA1, 2^80 in RIPEMD160.
No practical pre-image attacks (only theoretical, 2^123.4)
HMAC seems kinda ok: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc6151

import { md5, ripemd160, sha1 } from '@noble/hashes/legacy.js';
for (let hash of [md5, ripemd160, sha1]) {
  const arr = Uint8Array.from([0x10, 0x20, 0x30]);
  const a = hash(arr);
  const b = hash.create().update(arr).digest();
}

hmac

import { hmac } from '@noble/hashes/hmac.js';
import { sha256 } from '@noble/hashes/sha2.js';
const key = new Uint8Array(32).fill(1);
const msg = new Uint8Array(32).fill(2);
const mac1 = hmac(sha256, key, msg);
const mac2 = hmac.create(sha256, key).update(msg).digest();

Matches RFC 2104.

hkdf

import { hkdf } from '@noble/hashes/hkdf.js';
import { randomBytes } from '@noble/hashes/utils.js';
import { sha256 } from '@noble/hashes/sha2.js';
const inputKey = randomBytes(32);
const salt = randomBytes(32);
const info = 'application-key';
const hk1 = hkdf(sha256, inputKey, salt, info, 32);

// == same as
import { extract, expand } from '@noble/hashes/hkdf.js';
import { sha256 } from '@noble/hashes/sha2.js';
const prk = extract(sha256, inputKey, salt);
const hk2 = expand(sha256, prk, info, 32);

Matches RFC 5869.

pbkdf2

import { pbkdf2, pbkdf2Async } from '@noble/hashes/pbkdf2.js';
import { sha256 } from '@noble/hashes/sha2.js';
const pbkey1 = pbkdf2(sha256, 'password', 'salt', { c: 32, dkLen: 32 });
const pbkey2 = await pbkdf2Async(sha256, 'password', 'salt', { c: 32, dkLen: 32 });
const pbkey3 = await pbkdf2Async(sha256, Uint8Array.from([1, 2, 3]), Uint8Array.from([4, 5, 6]), {
  c: 32,
  dkLen: 32,
});

Matches RFC 2898.

scrypt

import { scrypt, scryptAsync } from '@noble/hashes/scrypt.js';
const scr1 = scrypt('password', 'salt', { N: 2 ** 16, r: 8, p: 1, dkLen: 32 });
const scr2 = await scryptAsync('password', 'salt', { N: 2 ** 16, r: 8, p: 1, dkLen: 32 });
const scr3 = await scryptAsync(Uint8Array.from([1, 2, 3]), Uint8Array.from([4, 5, 6]), {
  N: 2 ** 17,
  r: 8,
  p: 1,
  dkLen: 32,
  onProgress(percentage) {
    console.log('progress', percentage);
  },
  maxmem: 2 ** 32 + 128 * 8 * 1, // N * r * p * 128 + (128*r*p)
});

Conforms to RFC 7914, Website

N, r, p are work factors. To understand them, see the blog post. r: 8, p: 1 are common. JS doesn't support parallelization, making increasing p meaningless.
dkLen is the length of output bytes e.g. 32 or 64
onProgress can be used with async version of the function to report progress to a user.
maxmem prevents DoS and is limited to 1GB + 1KB (2**30 + 2**10), but can be adjusted using formula: N * r * p * 128 + (128 * r * p)

Time it takes to derive Scrypt key under different values of N (2**N) on Apple M4 (mobile phones can be 1x-4x slower):

N pow	Time	RAM
16	0.1s	64MB
17	0.2s	128MB
18	0.4s	256MB
19	0.8s	512MB
20	1.5s	1GB
21	3.1s	2GB
22	6.2s	4GB
23	13s	8GB
24	27s	16GB

[!NOTE] We support N larger than 2**20 where available, however, not all JS engines support >= 2GB ArrayBuffer-s. When using such N, you'll need to manually adjust maxmem, using formula above. Other JS implementations don't support large N-s.

argon2

import { argon2d, argon2i, argon2id } from '@noble/hashes/argon2.js';
const arg1 = argon2id('password', 'saltsalt', { t: 2, m: 65536, p: 1, maxmem: 2 ** 32 - 1 });

Argon2 RFC 9106 implementation.

[!WARNING] Argon2 can't be fast in JS, because there is no fast Uint64Array. It is suggested to use Scrypt instead. Being 5x slower than native code means brute-forcing attackers have bigger advantage.

utils

import { bytesToHex as toHex, randomBytes } from '@noble/hashes/utils';
console.log(toHex(randomBytes(32)));

bytesToHex will convert Uint8Array to a hex string
randomBytes(bytes) will produce cryptographically secure random Uint8Array of length bytes

Security

The library has been independently audited:

at version 1.0.0, in Jan 2022, by Cure53
- PDFs: website, in-repo
- Changes since audit.
- Scope: everything, besides blake3, sha3-addons, sha1 and argon2, which have not been audited
- The audit has been funded by Ethereum Foundation with help of Nomic Labs

It is tested against property-based, cross-library and Wycheproof vectors, and is being fuzzed in the separate repo.

If you see anything unusual: investigate and report.

Constant-timeness

We're targetting algorithmic constant time. JIT-compiler and Garbage Collector make "constant time" extremely hard to achieve timing attack resistance in a scripting language. Which means any other JS library can't have constant-timeness. Even statically typed Rust, a language without GC, makes it harder to achieve constant-time for some cases. If your goal is absolute security, don't use any JS lib — including bindings to native ones. Use low-level libraries & languages.

Memory dumping

The library shares state buffers between hash function calls. The buffers are zeroed-out after each call. However, if an attacker can read application memory, you are doomed in any case:

At some point, input will be a string and strings are immutable in JS: there is no way to overwrite them with zeros. For example: deriving key from scrypt(password, salt) where password and salt are strings
Input from a file will stay in file buffers
Input / output will be re-used multiple times in application which means it could stay in memory
await anything() will always write all internal variables (including numbers) to memory. With async functions / Promises there are no guarantees when the code chunk would be executed. Which means attacker can have plenty of time to read data from memory
There is no way to guarantee anything about zeroing sensitive data without complex tests-suite which will dump process memory and verify that there is no sensitive data left. For JS it means testing all browsers (incl. mobile), which is complex. And of course it will be useless without using the same test-suite in the actual application that consumes the library

Supply chain security

Commits are signed with PGP keys, to prevent forgery. Make sure to verify commit signatures
Releases are transparent and built on GitHub CI. Make sure to verify provenance logs
- Use GitHub CLI to verify single-file builds: gh attestation verify --owner paulmillr noble-hashes.js
Rare releasing is followed to ensure less re-audit need for end-users
Dependencies are minimized and locked-down: any dependency could get hacked and users will be downloading malware with every install.
- We make sure to use as few dependencies as possible
- Automatic dep updates are prevented by locking-down version ranges; diffs are checked with npm-diff
Dev Dependencies are disabled for end-users; they are only used to develop / build the source code

For this package, there are 0 dependencies; and a few dev dependencies:

micro-bmark, micro-should and jsbt are used for benchmarking / testing / build tooling and developed by the same author
prettier, fast-check and typescript are used for code quality / test generation / ts compilation. It's hard to audit their source code thoroughly and fully because of their size

Randomness

We're deferring to built-in crypto.getRandomValues which is considered cryptographically secure (CSPRNG).

In the past, browsers had bugs that made it weak: it may happen again. Implementing a userspace CSPRNG to get resilient to the weakness is even worse: there is no reliable userspace source of quality entropy.

Quantum computers

Cryptographically relevant quantum computer, if built, will allow to utilize Grover's algorithm to break hashes in 2^n/2 operations, instead of 2^n.

This means SHA256 should be replaced with SHA512, SHA3-256 with SHA3-512, SHAKE128 with SHAKE256 etc.

Australian ASD prohibits SHA256 and similar hashes after 2030.

Speed

npm run bench:install && npm run bench

Benchmarks measured on Apple M4.

# 32B
sha256 x 1,968,503 ops/sec @ 508ns/op
sha512 x 740,740 ops/sec @ 1μs/op
sha3_256 x 287,686 ops/sec @ 3μs/op
sha3_512 x 288,267 ops/sec @ 3μs/op
k12 x 476,190 ops/sec @ 2μs/op
m14 x 423,190 ops/sec @ 2μs/op
blake2b x 464,252 ops/sec @ 2μs/op
blake2s x 766,871 ops/sec @ 1μs/op
blake3 x 879,507 ops/sec @ 1μs/op

# 1MB
sha256 x 331 ops/sec @ 3ms/op
sha512 x 129 ops/sec @ 7ms/op
sha3_256 x 38 ops/sec @ 25ms/op
sha3_512 x 20 ops/sec @ 47ms/op
k12 x 88 ops/sec @ 11ms/op
m14 x 62 ops/sec @ 15ms/op
blake2b x 69 ops/sec @ 14ms/op
blake2s x 57 ops/sec @ 17ms/op
blake3 x 72 ops/sec @ 13ms/op

# MAC
hmac(sha256) x 599,880 ops/sec @ 1μs/op
hmac(sha512) x 197,122 ops/sec @ 5μs/op
kmac256 x 87,981 ops/sec @ 11μs/op
blake3(key) x 796,812 ops/sec @ 1μs/op

# KDF
hkdf(sha256) x 259,942 ops/sec @ 3μs/op
blake3(context) x 424,808 ops/sec @ 2μs/op
pbkdf2(sha256, c: 2 ** 18) x 5 ops/sec @ 197ms/op
pbkdf2(sha512, c: 2 ** 18) x 1 ops/sec @ 630ms/op
scrypt(n: 2 ** 18, r: 8, p: 1) x 2 ops/sec @ 400ms/op
argon2id(t: 1, m: 256MB) 2881ms

Compare to native node.js implementation that uses C bindings instead of pure-js code:

# native (node) 32B
sha256 x 2,267,573 ops/sec
sha512 x 983,284 ops/sec
sha3_256 x 1,522,070 ops/sec
blake2b x 1,512,859 ops/sec
blake2s x 1,821,493 ops/sec
hmac(sha256) x 1,085,776 ops/sec
hkdf(sha256) x 312,109 ops/sec
# native (node) KDF
pbkdf2(sha256, c: 2 ** 18) x 5 ops/sec @ 197ms/op
pbkdf2(sha512, c: 2 ** 18) x 1 ops/sec @ 630ms/op
scrypt(n: 2 ** 18, r: 8, p: 1) x 2 ops/sec @ 378ms/op

It is possible to make this library 4x+ faster by doing code generation of full loop unrolls. We've decided against it. Reasons:

the library must be auditable, with minimum amount of code, and zero dependencies
most method invocations with the lib are going to be something like hashing 32b to 64kb of data
hashing big inputs is 10x faster with low-level languages, which means you should probably pick 'em instead

The current performance is good enough when compared to other projects; SHA256 takes only 900 nanoseconds to run.

Contributing & testing

test/misc directory contains implementations of loop unrolling and md5.

npm install && npm run build && npm test will build the code and run tests.
npm run lint / npm run format will run linter / fix linter issues.
npm run bench will run benchmarks, which may need their deps first (npm run bench:install)
npm run build:release will build single file
There is additional 20-min DoS test npm run test:dos and 2-hour "big" multicore test npm run test:big. See our approach to testing

Additional resources:

NTT hashes are outside of scope of the library. You can view some of them in different repos:
- Pedersen in micro-zk-proofs
- Poseidon in noble-curves
Check out guidelines for coding practices
See paulmillr.com/noble for useful resources, articles, documentation and demos related to the library.

License

The MIT License (MIT)

See LICENSE file.

Keywords

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Package last updated on 21 Apr 2025

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@noble/hashes