Ben Bell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> On Tue, Nov 09, 1999 at 10:24:39AM +0800, Trevor Phillips wrote:
> > Another alternative is to get the MD5 base64 key to the URI. My query is, what
> > is the chance of two URI's giving the same MD5? Is there any risk in it, or is
> > MD5 guranteed to give unique ID's? (I know the risk would be SLIM, but how
> > slim?) Is MD5 used regularly for this kind of thing?
> Very slim :) something like 1/1000 billion, billion, billion, billion.
> for a match to a particular key, though about 1/1 billion billion for
> getting a collision in general. (In the region of 1 / (2^128) and 1 / (2^64)
> respectively.
>
> If you tack on the length of the string your MD5ing as well then you're
> pretty much safe.
I don't think this buy you much extra safety. The length of URIs
don't vary significantly compared to MD5.
--
Gisle Aas
