The MD5 message-digest algorithm is a widely used cryptographic hash function producing a 128-bit (16-byte) hash value, typically expressed in text format as a 32 digit hexadecimal number. MD5 has been utilized in a wide variety of cryptographic applications, and is also commonly used to verify data integrity.
MD5 was designed by Ron Rivest in 1991 to replace an earlier hash function, MD4.[3] The source code in RFC 1321contains a “by attribution” RSA license.
In 1996 a flaw was found in the design of MD5. While it was not deemed a fatal weakness at the time, cryptographers began recommending the use of other algorithms, such as SHA-1—which has since been found to be vulnerable as well.[4] In 2004 it was shown that MD5 is not collision resistant.[5] As such, MD5 is not suitable for applications like SSLcertificates or digital signatures that rely on this property for digital security. Also in 2004 more serious flaws were discovered in MD5, making further use of the algorithm for security purposes questionable; specifically, a group of researchers described how to create a pair of files that share the same MD5 checksum.[6][7] Further advances were made in breaking MD5 in 2005, 2006, and 2007.[8] In December 2008, a group of researchers used this technique to fake SSL certificate validity,[9][10] and CMU Software Engineering Institute now says that MD5 “should be considered cryptographically broken and unsuitable for further use”,[11] and most U.S. government applications now require the SHA-2 family of hash functions.[12] In 2012, the Flame malware exploited the weaknesses in MD5 to fake a Microsoft digital signature.
MD5 digests have been widely used in the software world to provide some assurance that a transferred file has arrived intact. For example, file servers often provide a pre-computed MD5 (known as Md5sum) checksum for the files, so that a user can compare the checksum of the downloaded file to it. Most unix-based operating systems include MD5 sum utilities in their distribution packages; Windows users may install a Microsoft utility,[42][43] or use third-party applications. Android ROMs also utilize this type of checksum.
However, now that it is easy to generate MD5 collisions, it is possible for the person who created the file to create a second file with the same checksum, so this technique cannot protect against some forms of malicious tampering. Also, in some cases, the checksum cannot be trusted (for example, if it was obtained over the same channel as the downloaded file), in which case MD5 can only provide error-checking functionality: it will recognize a corrupt or incomplete download, which becomes more likely when downloading larger files.
MD5 can be used to store a one-way hash of a password, often with key stretching. Along with other hash functions, it is also used in the field of electronic discovery, in order to provide a unique identifier for each document that is exchanged during the legal discovery process. This method can be used to replace the Bates stamp numbering system that has been used for decades during the exchange of paper documents.
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