Differences between version 5 and revision by previous author of MD5.
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| Newer page: | version 5 | Last edited on Monday, March 15, 2004 1:02:36 am | by StuartYeates | Revert |
| Older page: | version 4 | Last edited on Monday, August 11, 2003 2:06:10 pm | by JohnMcPherson | Revert |
@@ -12,7 +12,40 @@
http://userpages.umbc.edu/~mabzug1/cs/md5/md5.html
[1] RFC:1321
+
+
+----
+From RFC:1321
+
+!!!Executive Summary
+
+This document describes the MD5 message-digest algorithm. The
+algorithm takes as input a message of arbitrary length and produces
+as output a 128-bit "fingerprint" or "message digest" of the input.
+It is conjectured that it is computationally infeasible to produce
+two messages having the same message digest, or to produce any
+message having a given prespecified target message digest. The MD5
+algorithm is intended for digital signature applications, where a
+large file must be "compressed" in a secure manner before being
+encrypted with a private (secret) key under a public-key cryptosystem
+such as [RSA].
+
+The MD5 algorithm is designed to be quite fast on 32-bit machines. In
+addition, the MD5 algorithm does not require any large substitution
+tables; the algorithm can be coded quite compactly.
+
+The MD5 algorithm is an extension of the MD4 message-digest algorithm.
+MD5 is slightly slower than MD4, but is more "conservative" in
+design. MD5 was designed because it was felt that MD4 was perhaps
+being adopted for use more quickly than justified by the existing
+critical review; because MD4 was designed to be exceptionally fast,
+it is "at the edge" in terms of risking successful cryptanalytic
+attack. MD5 backs off a bit, giving up a little in speed for a much
+greater likelihood of ultimate security. It incorporates some
+suggestions made by various reviewers, and contains additional
+optimizations. The MD5 algorithm is being placed in the public domain
+for review and possible adoption as a standard.
----
CategoryAlgorithm
