3.8.4 What is SHS?

  The Secure Hash Standard (SHS) is a hash function proposed by NIST (see Question 3.7.1) and adopted as a U.S. government standard. It is designed for use with the proposed Digital Signature Standard (see Question 3.6.8) and is part of the government's Capstone project (see Question 3.6.1). SHS produces a 160-bit hash value from a variable-size input. SHS is structurally similar to MD4 and MD5. It is roughly 25% slower than MD5 but may be more secure, because it produces message digests that are 25% longer than those produced by the MD functions. SHS is currently the only part of Capstone that has been officially adopted as a government standard.