MD5Init, MD5Update, MD5Pad, MD5Final, MD5Transform, MD5End, MD5File, MD5FileChunk, MD5Data — calculate
Contents
Bugs
Collisions have been found for the full versions of both MD4 and MD5. The use of sha2(3) is recommended
instead.
Debian July 13, 2010 MD5(3)
Description
The MD5 functions calculate a 128-bit cryptographic checksum (digest) for any number of input bytes. A
cryptographic checksum is a one-way hash-function, that is, you cannot find (except by exhaustive search)
the input corresponding to a particular output. This net result is a “fingerprint” of the input-data,
which doesn't disclose the actual input.
MD2 is the slowest, MD4 is the fastest and MD5 is somewhere in the middle. MD2 can only be used for
Privacy-Enhanced Mail. MD4 has been criticized for being too weak, so MD5 was developed in response as
``MD4 with safety-belts''. MD4 and MD5 have been broken; they should only be used where necessary for
backward compatibility. The attacks on both MD4 and MD5 are both in the nature of finding “collisions” -
that is, multiple inputs which hash to the same value; it is still unlikely for an attacker to be able to
determine the exact original input given a hash value.
The MD5Init(), MD5Update(), and MD5Final() functions are the core functions. Allocate an MD5_CTX,
initialize it with MD5Init(), run over the data with MD5Update(), and finally extract the result using
MD5Final().
The MD5Pad() function can be used to apply padding to the message digest as in MD5Final(), but the
current context can still be used with MD5Update().
The MD5Transform() function is used by MD5Update() to hash 512-bit blocks and forms the core of the
algorithm. Most programs should use the interface provided by MD5Init(), MD5Update() and MD5Final()
instead of calling MD5Transform() directly.
MD5End() is a wrapper for MD5Final() which converts the return value to an MD5_DIGEST_STRING_LENGTH-
character (including the terminating '\0') ASCII string which represents the 128 bits in hexadecimal.
MD5File() calculates the digest of a file, and uses MD5End() to return the result. If the file cannot be
opened, a null pointer is returned.
MD5FileChunk() behaves like MD5File() but calculates the digest only for that portion of the file
starting at offset and continuing for length bytes or until end of file is reached, whichever comes
first. A zero length can be specified to read until end of file. A negative length or offset will be
ignored. MD5Data() calculates the digest of a chunk of data in memory, and uses MD5End() to return the
result.
When using MD5End(), MD5File(), MD5FileChunk(), or MD5Data(), the buf argument can be a null pointer, in
which case the returned string is allocated with malloc(3) and subsequently must be explicitly
deallocated using free(3) after use. If the buf argument is non-null it must point to at least
MD5_DIGEST_STRING_LENGTH characters of buffer space.
History
These functions appeared in OpenBSD 2.0 and NetBSD 1.3.
Library
Message Digest (MD4, MD5, etc.) Support Library (libmd, -lmd)
Name
MD5Init, MD5Update, MD5Pad, MD5Final, MD5Transform, MD5End, MD5File, MD5FileChunk, MD5Data — calculate
the RSA Data Security, Inc., “MD5” message digest
See Also
md2(3), md4(3), md5(3), rmd160(3), sha1(3), sha2(3)
B. Kaliski, TheMD2Message-DigestAlgorithm, RFC 1319.
R. Rivest, TheMD4Message-DigestAlgorithm, RFC 1186.
R. Rivest, TheMD5Message-DigestAlgorithm, RFC 1321.
RSA Laboratories, FrequentlyAskedQuestionsAbouttoday'sCryptography,
<http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/faq/>.
H. Dobbertin, “Alf Swindles Ann”, CryptoBytes, 1(3):5, 1995.
MJ. B. Robshaw, “On Recent Results for MD4 and MD5”, RSALaboratoriesBulletin, 4, November 12, 1996.
Hans Dobbertin, CryptanalysisofMD5Compress.
Synopsis
#include<sys/types.h>#include<md5.h>voidMD5Init(MD5_CTX*context);
voidMD5Update(MD5_CTX*context, constuint8_t*data, size_tlen);
voidMD5Pad(MD5_CTX*context);
voidMD5Final(uint8_tdigest[MD5_DIGEST_LENGTH], MD5_CTX*context);
voidMD5Transform(uint32_tstate[4], uint8_tblock[MD5_BLOCK_LENGTH]);
char*MD5End(MD5_CTX*context, char*buf);
char*MD5File(constchar*filename, char*buf);
char*MD5FileChunk(constchar*filename, char*buf, off_toffset, off_tlength);
char*MD5Data(constuint8_t*data, size_tlen, char*buf);
