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VIN

VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) check digit calculation per ISO 3779 and SAE J853. 17-character alphanumeric code using weighted sum modulo 11. Position 9 is check digit (0-9 or X). Used for automotive vehicle identification worldwide.

Properties

Property	Value
Category	Checksums
Sub-category	Vehicle Identification
Security status	🎓 Educational Only
Complexity	Intermediate
Inventor	National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
Year	1981
Origin	🇺🇸 United States
Source	algorithms/checksum/vin-checksum.js

Security

Status: 🎓 Educational Only

No vulnerabilities are recorded for this implementation.

Notes

• Format: 17 alphanumeric characters (excludes I, O, Q to avoid confusion with 1, 0)
• Position 9: Check digit (0-9 or X for 10)
• Weights: 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,10,0,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2 (position 1-17)
• Letter values: A=1, B=2, C=3, D=4, E=5, F=6, G=7, H=8, J=1, K=2, L=3, M=4, N=5, P=7, R=9, S=2, T=3, U=4, V=5, W=6, X=7, Y=8, Z=9
• Algorithm: Σ(character_value × weight) mod 11
• Check digit: result of mod 11 (10 represented as ‘X’)
• Used in: North America (mandatory), many other countries
• Detects: Most transcription errors

Documentation

• VIN on Wikipedia
• ISO 3779 Standard
• NHTSA VIN Decoder

References

• vininfo - VIN parsing and checksum verification library

Test vectors

3 vectors ship with this algorithm and run in the test suite. Byte values are hexadecimal.

Vector 1 — VIN with check digit X (1M8GDM9AXKP042788)

Field	Value
input	314d3847444d3941584b50303432373838
expected	0a

Vector 2 — VIN all ones (11111111111111111)

Field	Value
input	3131313131313131313131313131313131
expected	01

Vector 3 — VIN example (5YJ3E1EAXHF000316)

Field	Value
input	35594a3345314541584846303030333136
expected	0a

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