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1:mod:`hmac` --- Keyed-Hashing for Message Authentication
2========================================================
3
4.. module:: hmac
5   :synopsis: Keyed-Hashing for Message Authentication (HMAC) implementation
6
7.. moduleauthor:: Gerhard Häring <ghaering@users.sourceforge.net>
8.. sectionauthor:: Gerhard Häring <ghaering@users.sourceforge.net>
9
10**Source code:** :source:`Lib/hmac.py`
11
12--------------
13
14This module implements the HMAC algorithm as described by :rfc:`2104`.
15
16
17.. function:: new(key, msg=None, digestmod=None)
18
19   Return a new hmac object.  *key* is a bytes or bytearray object giving the
20   secret key.  If *msg* is present, the method call ``update(msg)`` is made.
21   *digestmod* is the digest name, digest constructor or module for the HMAC
22   object to use. It supports any name suitable to :func:`hashlib.new` and
23   defaults to the :data:`hashlib.md5` constructor.
24
25   .. versionchanged:: 3.4
26      Parameter *key* can be a bytes or bytearray object.
27      Parameter *msg* can be of any type supported by :mod:`hashlib`.
28      Parameter *digestmod* can be the name of a hash algorithm.
29
30   .. deprecated:: 3.4
31      MD5 as implicit default digest for *digestmod* is deprecated.
32
33
34An HMAC object has the following methods:
35
36.. method:: HMAC.update(msg)
37
38   Update the hmac object with *msg*.  Repeated calls are equivalent to a
39   single call with the concatenation of all the arguments:
40   ``m.update(a); m.update(b)`` is equivalent to ``m.update(a + b)``.
41
42   .. versionchanged:: 3.4
43      Parameter *msg* can be of any type supported by :mod:`hashlib`.
44
45
46.. method:: HMAC.digest()
47
48   Return the digest of the bytes passed to the :meth:`update` method so far.
49   This bytes object will be the same length as the *digest_size* of the digest
50   given to the constructor.  It may contain non-ASCII bytes, including NUL
51   bytes.
52
53   .. warning::
54
55      When comparing the output of :meth:`digest` to an externally-supplied
56      digest during a verification routine, it is recommended to use the
57      :func:`compare_digest` function instead of the ``==`` operator
58      to reduce the vulnerability to timing attacks.
59
60
61.. method:: HMAC.hexdigest()
62
63   Like :meth:`digest` except the digest is returned as a string twice the
64   length containing only hexadecimal digits.  This may be used to exchange the
65   value safely in email or other non-binary environments.
66
67   .. warning::
68
69      When comparing the output of :meth:`hexdigest` to an externally-supplied
70      digest during a verification routine, it is recommended to use the
71      :func:`compare_digest` function instead of the ``==`` operator
72      to reduce the vulnerability to timing attacks.
73
74
75.. method:: HMAC.copy()
76
77   Return a copy ("clone") of the hmac object.  This can be used to efficiently
78   compute the digests of strings that share a common initial substring.
79
80
81A hash object has the following attributes:
82
83.. attribute:: HMAC.digest_size
84
85   The size of the resulting HMAC digest in bytes.
86
87.. attribute:: HMAC.block_size
88
89   The internal block size of the hash algorithm in bytes.
90
91   .. versionadded:: 3.4
92
93.. attribute:: HMAC.name
94
95   The canonical name of this HMAC, always lowercase, e.g. ``hmac-md5``.
96
97   .. versionadded:: 3.4
98
99
100This module also provides the following helper function:
101
102.. function:: compare_digest(a, b)
103
104   Return ``a == b``.  This function uses an approach designed to prevent
105   timing analysis by avoiding content-based short circuiting behaviour,
106   making it appropriate for cryptography.  *a* and *b* must both be of the
107   same type: either :class:`str` (ASCII only, as e.g. returned by
108   :meth:`HMAC.hexdigest`), or a :term:`bytes-like object`.
109
110   .. note::
111
112      If *a* and *b* are of different lengths, or if an error occurs,
113      a timing attack could theoretically reveal information about the
114      types and lengths of *a* and *b*—but not their values.
115
116
117   .. versionadded:: 3.3
118
119
120.. seealso::
121
122   Module :mod:`hashlib`
123      The Python module providing secure hash functions.
124