> You can't recover the text from an MD5 hash. You can discover the text - but only via a brute force attack. What you cannot do, is simply reverse the process and make the hash spit the text back out with some magical algorithm.
-Cameron -------------------- Cameron Childress elliptIQ Inc. p.770.460.1035.232 f.770.460.0963 -- http://www.neighborware.com America's Leading Community Network Software > -----Original Message----- > From: Howie Hamlin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2002 12:53 PM > To: CF-Talk > Subject: Re: only one MD5 hash? > > > You can't recover the text from an MD5 hash. The idea of the > hash is that the hash is created based on a known key (a password, for > example) and that you can duplicate the results of the hash if > you know the original text and the key. MD5 is commonly used in SMTP > authentication where the user know his password and the server > knows the password. The server presents a challenge string (the > string changes each time) that the client uses to produce an MD5 > string (using the password as the key). The client then sends the > MD5 result to the server and the server compares it to its own > result. Thus, you verify the password without actually transmitting > it. > > Regards, > > Howie > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Cameron Childress" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "CF-Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2002 11:36 AM > Subject: RE: only one MD5 hash? > > > > > Brute forcing this 100,000 character string would take a very > very very long > > time. > > <snip? > > > -Cameron > > ______________________________________________________________________ Get Your Own Dedicated Windows 2000 Server PIII 800 / 256 MB RAM / 40 GB HD / 20 GB MO/XFER Instant Activation � $99/Month � Free Setup http://www.pennyhost.com/redirect.cfm?adcode=coldfusionb FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
