Is it possible to identify a hash type?

Question

I know you can compare the length but many hash types have the same lengths.

Is there a way to identify a hash's type and whether it has been salted?

For example:

hash=2bf231b0e98be99a969bd6724f42a691
hash=4ac5a4ff764807d6ef464e27e4d1bee3
hash=4d177cec31d658ed22cc229e45d7265e

Answer 1

That particular example is a 32 character alphanumeric representation, which is almost certainly MD5.

SHA-1 usually comes as a 40 character alphanumeric string (as does SHA-0)

MD5 and SHA-1 account for the vast majority of hashes you'll find in the wild.

Answer 2

Yes, it is possible to a degree of some certainty to identify the type of hash algorithm that was used.

One tool that I use a lot to do this is hash-identifier.

For example, I create a hash of the Hash_ID.py file:

$ openssl sha -sha256 Hash_ID.py 
SHA256(Hash_ID.py)= 5382a8826c972f8fa8687efe1f68e475c02af4bf542b0d7e68b9deffd388db96

When running Hash_ID.py it will ask for the Hash to be entered:

$ python Hash_ID.py 
   #########################################################################
   #     __  __                     __           ______    _____           #
   #    /\ \/\ \                   /\ \         /\__  _\  /\  _ `\         #
   #    \ \ \_\ \     __      ____ \ \ \___     \/_/\ \/  \ \ \/\ \        #
   #     \ \  _  \  /'__`\   / ,__\ \ \  _ `\      \ \ \   \ \ \ \ \       #
   #      \ \ \ \ \/\ \_\ \_/\__, `\ \ \ \ \ \      \_\ \__ \ \ \_\ \      #
   #       \ \_\ \_\ \___ \_\/\____/  \ \_\ \_\     /\_____\ \ \____/      #
   #        \/_/\/_/\/__/\/_/\/___/    \/_/\/_/     \/_____/  \/___/  v1.1 #
   #                                                             By Zion3R #
   #                                                    www.Blackploit.com #
   #                                                   [email protected] #
   #########################################################################

   -------------------------------------------------------------------------
 HASH: 5382a8826c972f8fa8687efe1f68e475c02af4bf542b0d7e68b9deffd388db96

Possible Hashs:
[+]  SHA-256
[+]  Haval-256

Least Possible Hashs:
[+]  GOST R 34.11-94
[+]  RipeMD-256
[+]  SNEFRU-256
[+]  SHA-256(HMAC)
[+]  Haval-256(HMAC)
[+]  RipeMD-256(HMAC)
[+]  SNEFRU-256(HMAC)
[+]  SHA-256(md5($pass))
[+]  SHA-256(sha1($pass))

The way Hash ID works is by checking the hash given against criteria for all the hash types it supports and will give a list of possible hash types.