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Is it possible to decrypt MD5 hashes?

Asked 2009-08-06T19:25:24.013
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Someone told me that he has seen software systems that:

  1. retrieve MD5 encrypted passwords from other systems;
  2. decrypt the encrypted passwords and
  3. store the passwords in the database of the system using the systems own algorithm.

Is that possible? I thought that it wasn't possible / feasible to decrypt MD5 hashes.

I know there are MD5 dictionaries, but is there an actual decryption algorithm?

hash cryptography md5 encryption
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No, he must have been confused about the MD5 dictionaries.

Cryptographic hashes (MD5, etc...) are one way and you can't get back to the original message with only the digest unless you have some other information about the original message, etc. that you shouldn't.

answered 2009-08-06T19:28:36.300

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