# Does SHA1 require public keys? [closed]

I want to know if they do, and if they don't which ones don't require public keys.

## closed as unclear what you're asking by Squeamish Ossifrage, forest, kelalaka, fgrieu, MaeherFeb 21 at 8:01

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• SHA1 doesn't have a concept of keys at all. It's just a hash function. – Natanael Feb 20 at 1:55
• SHA does not stand for Signature&HAndshake! – DannyNiu Feb 20 at 2:25

I guess this confusion is due to OpenSSL command line (openssl dgst if I'm not mistaken) or functions such as Java's "SHAwithRSA". However, signature verification commonly uses a hash over the message to perform the operation as well as a public key. It is not the hash itself that accepts a public key. In that sense, such interfaces are badly named.