| For those of you who
have never heard of MD5 before, a simple explanation is in order. Keep in mind
that I am not a cryptography expert, and I am trying to understand these things
myself. The MD4, MD5 and SHA-1 algorithms are secure
hash functions. They take a string input, and produce a fixed size number - 128
bits for MD4 and MD5; 160 bits for SHA-1. This number is a hash of the input - a
small change in the input results in a substantial change in the output. The
uses of secure hashes include digital signatures and challenge hash
authentication.
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