Chaos-based hash function with both modification detection and localization capabilities

As one of the cores of Cryptography, hashing is a basic technique for information security (Schneier, 1996; Stinson, 1995). A cryptographic hash function is used to compress the message data to a fixed-size hash value in such a way that any alternation to the data will generate a different hash value. Chaos is a kind of deterministic random-like process provided by nonlinear dynamic systems. Chaotic systems are systems that are random-like, but in fact are not random. They are governed by physical laws to make the accurate prediction almost impossible. It is a promising direction to utilize the characteristics of chaos to design hash function.