note 13657 deleted from function.md5 by danbrown
| From: | danbrown@php.net | Date: | Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:18:33 +0000 |
| Subject: | note 13657 deleted from function.md5 by danbrown | ||
| References: | 1 | Groups: | php.notes |
| Request: | Send a blank email to php-notes+get-180731@lists.php.net to get a copy of this message | ||
Note Submitter: mbabcock-php at fibrespeed dot net
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I must point out to all the people who read the notes this far that MD5 is _not_ encryption in a
traditional sense. Creating an MD5 digest (or hash) of a message simply creates 128 bits that can
be used to almost positively identify that message or object in the future. You use MD5 if you want
to validate that information is true. For example, you may ask a user to submit a message through a
browser POST and save an MD5 of that message in a database for a preview function. When the user
submits it the second time, running the MD5 hash of the new version of the text and comparing it to
the original MD5 in the database will tell you if the text has changed at all. This is how MD5 is
used -- it is _not_ for encrypting things so as to get the data back afterward -- the MD5 hash
version does _not_ contain the data of the original in a new form.