Final answer:
SHA256 and MD5 are examples of cryptographic hash functions, with SHA256 being more secure and widely used today. CertUtil is not a hash function but can compute file hashes, and Cain and Abel is a password recovery tool, not a hash function itself.
Step-by-step explanation:
The subject in question is cryptographic hash functions, which are widely used in the field of Computers and Technology, particularly information security. A hash function is a mathematical algorithm that converts an input (or 'message') into a fixed-size string of bytes. The output, typically a digital fingerprint, uniquely represents the input data, regardless of its length or content.
SHA256 and MD5 are both widely recognized examples of hash functions. SHA256, which stands for Secure Hash Algorithm 256-bit, is part of the SHA-2 family and is used for secure data verification. MD5, which stands for Message-Digest Algorithm 5, is an older hash function that has seen declining use because of its vulnerability to collision attacks, where two different inputs produce the same hash output.
On the other hand, CertUtil is a command-line utility that is used for handling certificates in Windows, but it's not a hash function itself, although it can be used to compute the hash of a file using various hash algorithms. Lastly, Cain and Abel is a password recovery tool that incorporates various cryptographic algorithms, but it is not a hash function on its own.