Hacker Timesnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

"MD5, being cryptographically sound"

Uh, not for a while now...

Which is not to say that the general point isn't sound - MD5 was aimed at generating high quality entropy while most non-crypto hashes are aimed at generating entropy-enough fast - but don't use MD5 for crypto stuff anymore.



That has nothing to do with the context of the conversation.

The point is that it was designed to be cryptographically sound -- and therefore more heavily optimised towards entropy over performance -- whereas the need here is for the hypothetical entropy/performance slider.


On a related note, if you want a combination of speed and cryptographic strength, SipHash fits the bill:

http://eprint.iacr.org/2012/351.pdf

It's a cryptographic MAC that's almost as fast as MurmurHash. It was designed to be used in hash tables, to protect against denial-of-service attacks from people trying to cause a lot of hash bucket collisions.


He was being facetious.




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2026 batch! Applications are open till May 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: