HAIFA construction
The HAIFA construction (hash iterative framework) is a cryptographic structure used in the design of hash functions. It is one of the modern alternatives to the Merkle–Damgård construction, avoiding its weaknesses like . The construction was designed by and Orr Dunkelman in 2007.
Three of the 14 second round candidates in the NIST hash function competition were based on HAIFA constructions (BLAKE, SHAvite-3, ECHO). Other hash functions based on it are LAKE, Sarmal, SWIFFTX and HNF-256. The construction of () is similar to HAIFA. Another alternative construction is the .