is it possible to convert Hashbyte back to string?

  • We have unique key in table which is hashbye sha1.
    This value is combination of multiple columns from a different table. one of the records is a problem and I need to able decode that Hash Byte.
    is there a tsql function I can use to convert it back to string values?

  • mandavli - Monday, May 1, 2017 7:53 AM

    We have unique key in table which is hashbye sha1.
    This value is combination of multiple columns from a different table. one of the records is a problem and I need to able decode that Hash Byte.
    is there a tsql function I can use to convert it back to string values?

    The purpose of computing a hash value is never to be able to re-construct the data, as it's utility as a security mechanism would drop to zero, and no, there is no such function.

    Steve (aka sgmunson) 🙂 🙂 🙂
    Rent Servers for Income (picks and shovels strategy)

  • The HASHBYTES function is a many-to-one function. So its reverse, if it were even possible, would be a one-to-many function – not very useful.

    The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
    Martin Rees

    You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead.
    Stan Laurel

  • If you know the algorithm used then you could theoretically use a rainbow table to find the original values, somewhat elaborate exercise.
    😎

  • Eirikur Eiriksson - Monday, May 1, 2017 8:52 AM

    If you know the algorithm used then you could theoretically use a rainbow table to find the original values, somewhat elaborate exercise.
    😎

    It was interesting to read about rainbow tables, thank you. Perhaps not quite the snappy solution the OP was looking for though 🙂

    The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
    Martin Rees

    You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead.
    Stan Laurel

  • Phil Parkin - Monday, May 1, 2017 9:33 AM

    Eirikur Eiriksson - Monday, May 1, 2017 8:52 AM

    If you know the algorithm used then you could theoretically use a rainbow table to find the original values, somewhat elaborate exercise.
    😎

    It was interesting to read about rainbow tables, thank you. Perhaps not quite the snappy solution the OP was looking for though 🙂

    You are right, somewhat elaborate solution and normally not part of my standard SQL toolkit, used those many times for other activities 😉
    😎

  • mandavli - Monday, May 1, 2017 7:53 AM

    We have unique key in table which is hashbye sha1.
    This value is combination of multiple columns from a different table. one of the records is a problem and I need to able decode that Hash Byte.
    is there a tsql function I can use to convert it back to string values?

    My understanding is that you have something like TableB with a column containing a hash of several columns from TableA. So, I'm guessing this column is a computed semi-natural foreign key, and you now want to join rows in TableB back to the related row in TableA. I don't know the column expression used for the hash, so in the example below I'll just use "Col1 + Col2 + Col3". For this to work, you'll need to know what the actual expression is and substitute it.

    To select a row from TableA using a specific hash id:

    SELECT *
    FROM TableA
    WHERE HASHBYTES ( 'SHA1', Col1 + Col2 + Col3 )  =  0x6CDD0A23A8E677557C9B2514D7BA307BE8BDD117;

    Or to join multiple rows in TableB to TableA:

    SELECT B.HashID, A.*
    FROM TableA AS A
    JOIN TableB AS B ON B.HashID = HASHBYTES ( 'SHA1', A.Col1 + A.Col2 + A.Col3 );

    "Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho

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