Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: MD5 is broken

[Andrew Suffield]

On Wed, Mar 16, 2005 at 09:49:24PM +0100, Andreas Rottmann wrote:
> >>> Is this better for you? i.e. there is a possibility to find two
> >>> values which hash to the same hash without using
> >>> brute force attack.
> >>
> >> That is the case for all known hashing algorithms. Uninteresting
> >> distinction.
> >
> I *think* *that* (as opposed to the above) is *not* the case for all
> known hash algorithms. Andrew, can you elaborate?

Every single known hashing algorithm (excluding the snake-oil fluff)
has a possible attack to find collisions more efficiently than
brute-force. For some (like SHA-1) an attack is known; for others
(like MD5) an attack is merely demonstrated possible, but it's there
for all of them. There are no hash functions without demonstrated or
known collision attacks (none of the current algorithms, like MD5,
RIPE-MD, and SHA-1, have demonstrated second preimage attacks).

-- 
  .''`.  ** Debian GNU/Linux ** | Andrew Suffield
 : :' :  http://www.debian.org/ |
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