SHA-384
=======

SHA-384 belongs to the SHA-2_ family of cryptographic hashes.
It produces the 384 bit digest of a message.

SHA-384 is roughly 50% faster than SHA-224 and SHA-256 on 64-bit machines, even if its digest is longer.
The speed-up is due to the internal computation being performed with 64-bit words,
whereas the other two hash functions employ 32-bit words.

SHA-512, SHA-512/224, and SHA-512/256 too are faster on 64-bit machines for the same reason.

This is an example showing how to use SHA-384:

    >>> from Crypto.Hash import SHA384
    >>>
    >>> h = SHA384.new()
    >>> h.update(b'Hello')
    >>> print(h.hexdigest())

*SHA* stands for Secure Hash Algorithm.

SHA-384 is **not** vulnerable to `length-extension attacks <https://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/3978/understanding-the-length-extension-attack>`_.

.. _SHA-2: http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/FIPS/NIST.FIPS.180-4.pdf

.. automodule:: Crypto.Hash.SHA384
    :members: