.. hazmat::

Hash-based Message Authentication Codes
=======================================

.. currentmodule:: cryptography.hazmat.primitives.hmac

.. testsetup::

    import binascii
    key = binascii.unhexlify(b"0" * 32)

Hash-based message authentication codes (or HMACs) are a tool for calculating
message authentication codes using a cryptographic hash function coupled with a
secret key. You can use an HMAC to verify integrity as well as authenticate a
message.

.. class:: HMAC(key, msg=None, digestmod=None)

    HMAC objects take a ``key``, a hash class derived from
    :class:`~cryptography.primitives.hashes.BaseHash`, and optional message.
    The ``key`` should be randomly generated bytes and is recommended to be
    equal in length to the ``digest_size`` of the hash function chosen.
    You must keep the ``key`` secret.

    .. doctest::

        >>> from cryptography.hazmat.primitives import hashes, hmac
        >>> h = hmac.HMAC(key, digestmod=hashes.SHA256)
        >>> h.update(b"message to hash")
        >>> h.hexdigest()
        '...'

    .. method:: update(msg)

        :param bytes msg: The bytes to hash and authenticate.

    .. method:: copy()

        :return: a new instance of this object with a copied internal state.

    .. method:: digest()

        :return bytes: The message digest as bytes.

    .. method:: hexdigest()

        :return str: The message digest as hex.