Understand Password Hashing

SHA-256 and SHA-512 are one-way hash functions — you can't reverse the hash to get the original text. This is why hashed passwords are secure.

This tool demonstrates hashing but is NOT suitable for password storage in production. Use bcrypt, Argon2, or scrypt — these add salting and key stretching.

Notice how changing even a single character produces a completely different hash. This is the "avalanche effect" — intentional in cryptographic hash design.

SHA-1 is shown for reference only. It is cryptographically broken and should not be used for security purposes in modern applications.