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Which hash method do you use (MD5, SHA1, other?)

Asked 2008-12-24T09:12:09.830
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This Wikipedia page has an extensive list of hashing methods

As you can see, both MD5 and Sha1 have been broken (in Cryptography, "broken" means there's an attack less complex than the brute force attack. In other words, if you need 1 million year to find a collision instead of one billion year using brute force, the algorithm is consider broken, even if it's probably still safe to use it)

What do you use as a hash algorithm?

SHA1 is broken but one still needs billion of years to compute a collision.

Other hashes are still unbroken, but we have to keep in mind that ressearchers concentrate their efforts on mainstream algorithm (that is MD5 and SHA1), so unbroken hashes may be unsecure aswell.

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It depends on what I am using the hash for... Security? File change detection? Find duplicates files?

I assume from the way the question was asked the former is the reason you are using hashes. In which case I would recommend not using a "broken" method.

If non security uses are the case (i.e. finding duplicate files), MD5 works fine and is quicker.

answered 2008-12-24T09:39:35.593

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