September 28, 2012
SHA-1: Federal agencies should stop using SHA-1 for generating digital signatures, generating time stamps and for other applications that require collision resistance. Federal agencies may use SHA-1 for the following applications: verifying old digital signatures and time stamps, generating and verifying hash-based message authentication codes (HMACs), key derivation functions (KDFs), and random bit/number generation. Further guidance on the use of SHA-1 is provided in SP 800-131A.

SHA-2 (i.e., SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512, SHA-512/224 and SHA-512/256): Federal agencies may use these hash functions for all applications that employ secure hash algorithms. NIST encourages application and protocol designers to implement SHA-256 at a minimum for any applications of hash functions requiring interoperability. Further guidance on the use of SHA-2 is provided in SP 800-57 Part 1, section 5.6.2 and SP 800-131A.

SHA-3: When the SHA-3 hash algorithm becomes available, it may also be used for all applications that employ secure hash algorithms. At this time, there is no need or plan to transition applications from SHA-2 to SHA-3.

March 15, 2006
The SHA-2 family of hash functions (i.e., SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384 and SHA-512) may be used by Federal agencies for all applications using secure hash algorithms. Federal agencies should stop using SHA-1 for digital signatures, digital time stamping and other applications that require collision resistance as soon as practical, and must use the SHA-2 family of hash functions for these applications after 2010. After 2010, Federal agencies may use SHA-1 only for the following applications: hash-based message authentication codes (HMACs); key derivation functions (KDFs); and random number generators (RNGs). Regardless of use, NIST encourages application and protocol designers to use the SHA-2 family of hash functions for all new applications and protocols.