# Hash buster

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> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Hash_buster.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_buster
> Source revision: 1286568434
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{Refimprove|date=January 2008}}
A '''hash buster''' is a [program](/source/Computer_program) which randomly adds characters to data in order to change the data's [hash sum](/source/hash_sum).<ref>{{cite news|last=Delio|first=Michelle|title=Random Acts of Spamness|url=https://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2004/01/61886?currentPage=all|work=Wired Tech Biz|publisher=Wired Magazine|accessdate=24 September 2011|date=13 January 2004}}</ref> 

This is typically used to add words to [spam](/source/e-mail_spam) e-mails, to bypass [hash filter](/source/hash_filter)s. As the e-mail's hash sum is different from the sum of e-mails previously defined as spam, the e-mail is not considered spam and therefore delivered as if it were a normal message.

Hash busters can also be used to randomly add content to any kind of file until the hash sum becomes a certain sum. In e-mail context, this could be used to bypass a filter which only accepts e-mails with a certain sum.

Initially spams containing "white noise" from hash busters tended to simply exhibit 'paragraphs' of literally random words, but increasingly these are now appearing somewhat grammatical. 

== See also ==
* [Cryptographic hash function](/source/Cryptographic_hash_function)
* [Bayesian poisoning](/source/Bayesian_poisoning)
* [Locality-sensitive hashing](/source/Locality-sensitive_hashing)

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
*[http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid19_gci917491,00.html searchCIO.com Definitions] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060220063813/http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid19_gci917491,00.html |date=2006-02-20 }}

{{Spamming}}

Category:Spamming
Category:Random text generation

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Hash buster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_buster) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_buster?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.