Fuzzy Hashing
Fuzzy hashing is used in applications such as malware detection and image matching. However, its usefulness does not stop there, fuzzy hashing is a way to mathematically judge how different two things are from each other. One way of looking at fuzzy hashing is as a fundamental pillar of artificial intelligence. Our human brains do some very specialized things as part of our broader consciousness, they regulate our core bodily functions, they store and replay information when we need it, and they can tell when something is similar to something else but not exactly the same. A fuzzy hash does this as well, it determines if two things are similar but not the same. Genera aspires to offer fuzzy hashing capabilities as a plug and play interface that can augment whatever comparison is being done by the system or user. The API allows a user to keep multiple sets of fuzzy hash signatures organized under a simple to use interface and continuously compare those hashes to new items as desired on demand. There are two levels of hashing comparison results: entity or “file to file” resulting distances, and “chunk” distances. Chunk distances tell us which parts of a given entity are close or far, whatever the case may be.