Cryptographic hash functions are used for message authentication, digital signatures, and other applications. They must be resistant to preimage, second preimage, and collision attacks. Popular hash functions include SHA-1, SHA-2 (SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512), and the new standard SHA-3. SHA-3 uses a sponge construction that partitions inputs into blocks processed sequentially by an iteration function f to produce an output block. This provides resistance against cryptanalysis attacks on previous hash functions.