# fhash

## A simple python tool for generating, passing and formatting hash values

So some may not agree, but I find hash values make very good master passwords for tools like 
password managers and other security software. Why go with just a passphrase when you can pipe
the sucker in a few one-way functions to scramble it? I've found this is only a practical
solution though if:
1) You know you will always be able to copy and paste on the device you are using
2) You know you will always have a hashing tool either natively or available online

For convenience, I used online tools for years, but this led to bad habits. See some tools like
to use caps (it is a hex number after all) but some stick with lowercase. Seems like a useless
distinction and it probably is, but since some of my hash passwords are upper case and some are
lower, it'd be nice to have a simple portable tool to do that so I don't need to rely on some
random guy on the internet. You could use openssl of course, but that's giving you a lot more
than you need. And other command line hashing functions usually stick to one algorithm like
md5sum. 

For example, here's how you'd take the sha3 hash, with a message size of 256, and capitalize it in bash:

`echo "password" | openssl dgst -sha3-256 | cut -c 10- | tr "[:lower:]" "[:upper:]"`

Not awful, but a little cumbersome

So this is my attempt to make a tool in the middle of those. Hopefully someone could learn something
from it too, since it was pretty easy to write.

All libraries are in the Python Standard Library, all you need is Python 3, no other dependencies!

The script is self contained and executable so Linux users can just use:

`$ ./fhash.py sha2 -i "Hello, World!"`

Or if you don't like the .py on the end you can rename it with:

`$ mv fhash.py fhash`

If you really like it and want to use it from anywhere on your system, copy it into your path (run as root):

`# cp fhash.py /usr/local/bin/fhash.py`

The program also runs on Windows, but you'll need to run it through python:

`> python3 fhash.py sha2 -i "I<3Windows"`

The default output can be passed to other commands as in:

`$ fhash.py md5 -i $(fhash.py sha2 -i "Hello, world\!")`

Or you can pipe the output like this:

`$ fhash.py sha2 -i "Hello, world\!" -f uppercase | fhash.py md5 -i {}`

Or if you want to be fancy, pipe to other formatting programs :)

`$ fhash.py sha3 -i "LOLcats\!" -f uppercase | lolcat`

![alt text](./lolcat.png?raw=True)

Or go completely crazy:

![alt text](./fhash-example.png?raw=True)

The input need not be a string, you can also put files, a list of files, or a 
folder to hash. You can also use descriptors like '\*' or '.'

For SHA2 and SHA3, you can set the size of the output using the '-s' flag. 
Run with '-s 0' to see a list of supported sizes.<br>
This flag is simply ignored for SHA1 and MD5 since they only have one output size

You can optionally use the '-v' flag for more details and timing, but you will not be able to 
pipe the output the same way, so this is more of an experimental option than anything

Use '-h' '--help' to see the list of flags and how to use them. If you have suggestions on how
to improve the help menu to make the tool easier to understand, please submit a pull request or
open an issue!

Don't run the script itself as administrator by the way, this sometimes messes things up when 
opening files. If you must, copy the file and change it's permissions.


Any and all contributors welcome. Please just make sure any edits are compliant with PEP8.<br>