cpython/Doc/library/hmac.rst

:mod:`hmac` --- Keyed-Hashing for Message Authentication
========================================================

.. module:: hmac
   :synopsis: Keyed-Hashing for Message Authentication (HMAC) implementation
              for Python.
.. moduleauthor:: Gerhard Häring <ghaering@users.sourceforge.net>
.. sectionauthor:: Gerhard Häring <ghaering@users.sourceforge.net>

**Source code:** :source:`Lib/hmac.py`

--------------

This module implements the HMAC algorithm as described by :rfc:`2104`.


.. function:: new(key, msg=None, digestmod=None)

   Return a new hmac object.  *key* is a bytes object giving the secret key.  If
   *msg* is present, the method call ``update(msg)`` is made.  *digestmod* is
   the digest constructor or module for the HMAC object to use. It defaults to
   the :func:`hashlib.md5` constructor.


An HMAC object has the following methods:

.. method:: HMAC.update(msg)

   Update the hmac object with the bytes object *msg*.  Repeated calls are
   equivalent to a single call with the concatenation of all the arguments:
   ``m.update(a); m.update(b)`` is equivalent to ``m.update(a + b)``.


.. method:: HMAC.digest()

   Return the digest of the bytes passed to the :meth:`update` method so far.
   This bytes object will be the same length as the *digest_size* of the digest
   given to the constructor.  It may contain non-ASCII bytes, including NUL
   bytes.

   .. warning::

      When comparing the output of :meth:`digest` to an externally-supplied
      digest during a verification routine, it is recommended to use the
      :func:`compare_digest` function instead of the ``==`` operator
      to reduce the vulnerability to timing attacks.


.. method:: HMAC.hexdigest()

   Like :meth:`digest` except the digest is returned as a string twice the
   length containing only hexadecimal digits.  This may be used to exchange the
   value safely in email or other non-binary environments.

   .. warning::

      When comparing the output of :meth:`hexdigest` to an externally-supplied
      digest during a verification routine, it is recommended to use the
      :func:`compare_digest` function instead of the ``==`` operator
      to reduce the vulnerability to timing attacks.


.. method:: HMAC.copy()

   Return a copy ("clone") of the hmac object.  This can be used to efficiently
   compute the digests of strings that share a common initial substring.


This module also provides the following helper function:

.. function:: compare_digest(a, b)

   Return ``a == b``.  This function uses an approach designed to prevent timing
   analysis by avoiding content based short circuiting behaviour, making it
   appropriate for cryptography.  *a* and *b* must both be of the same type:
   either :class:`str` (ASCII only, as e.g. returned by
   :meth:`HMAC.hexdigest`), or any type that supports the buffer protocol
   (e.g. :class:`bytes`).

   Using a short circuiting comparison (that is, one that terminates as soon as
   it finds any difference between the values) to check digests for correctness
   can be problematic, as it introduces a potential vulnerability when an
   attacker can control both the message to be checked *and* the purported
   signature value.  By keeping the plaintext consistent and supplying different
   signature values, an attacker may be able to use timing variations to search
   the signature space for the expected value in O(n) time rather than the
   desired O(2**n).

   .. note::

      If *a* and *b* are of different lengths, or if an error occurs,
      a timing attack may be able to reveal information about the types
      and lengths of *a* and *b*, but not their values.


   .. versionadded:: 3.3


.. seealso::

   Module :mod:`hashlib`
      The Python module providing secure hash functions.