On 22-Jan-2009, at 02:43, David de Lama wrote:
Hi @all!
I have two questions:
- First, am I right that the chance of getting the same 32-bit
rolling checksum is 1/2^16
Depends on the algorithm. Most 32bit algorithms are not really 1:
(2^16)-1
and to get the same 128-bit MD5 Hash is 1/2^127?
The chances of two files accidentally generating the same MD5 hash are
about 1:2^100, or about 1 in 12,676,506,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
Why it's not 1 in (2^127)-1 is complicated, and might be part of the
reason for MD5's exploitability. Enough said that MD5 does not use
every possible potential hash.
Put another way, if you generate a new md5 hash ever *nanosecond*, it
will take up to 40,170,281,500,000 YEARS to generate a collision (or
about 3000 times long than the universe has existed). To have a 50%
chance of collision is considerably more likely (about 600 years if
you generate one MD5 hash every nanosecond, or nearly 600,000,000,000
years (c. 50 times longer than the universe has existed) at a more
reasonable rate of 1 hash per second).
If your concern with MD5 is accidental collisions, then MD5 is
perfectly fine; you're not going to get hash collisions. If your
concern is security, then MD5 is not acceptable because it has known
vulnerabilities.
--
Advance and attack! Attack and destroy! Destroy and rejoice!
--
Please use reply-all for most replies to avoid omitting the mailing list.
To unsubscribe or change options: https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/rsync
Before posting, read: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
