How to compute MD5 Hash (Message-Digest algorithm 5) using Cryptography?

Introduction

As Cryptography is the latest trend in web security service, MD5 is the most significant cryptographic hash function and component of various web security certificates like SSL 3.0, TLS 1.3 and others. Unlike previous version MD4, the MD5 hash is the improved and more effective version that was invented by MIT Professor Ronald Rivest.

Message Digest 5 Algorithm as RFC 1321

In cryptography security trend, MD5 is an extensively used cryptographic hash function with a hash value 128-bit. MD5 has been utilized as a valuable RFC 1321 Internet standard in the differentiated web security applications, and is also frequently used to test the integrity of files. An MD5 hash is logically uttered as a 32-digit hexadecimal figure to check the message for strong security purpose.

To generate the MD5 hash of a piece of text, type below:

• INPUT STRING
• COMPUTING MD5 hash
• FINAL OUTPUT

Namespace Used

using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System;
using System.Text;

Working Model:

 StringBuilder hash = new StringBuilder();
   
 // input string
 string input = "Technology crowds";

 // defining MD5 object
 var md5provider = new MD5CryptoServiceProvider();
 // computing MD5 hash
 byte[] bytes = md5provider.ComputeHash(new UTF8Encoding().GetBytes(input));
 for (int i = 0; i < bytes.Length; i++)
 {
  hash.Append(bytes[i].ToString("x2"));
 }

 // final output
 Console.WriteLine(string.Format("The MD5 hash is: {0}",hash));

Output

The MD5 hash is: e6ff808188419ba062acbeb4163e966b

MD5 working approach

The MD5 hashing algorithm processes information in 512-bit blocks, broken down into 16 words composed of 32 bits each and gives the final output of 128-bit MD (message digest) value.

Calculation of the MD5 value is performed in different stages that process each 512-bit block of information along with the value calculated in the earlier stage. The first stage starts with the message digest values inputting successive hexadecimal numerical values. Every stage includes 4 message digest forwards which operate values in the current block of data and values processed from the preceding block. The final output calculated from the last block turns into the MD5 digest for that block.

The function of MD5 hash security

The purpose of any message digest hashing function is to create digests that come into sight randomly. From the cryptographic angle, the hash function should meet two specific needs: the first need is an illegal hacker can’t generate a message fetching to a particular hash value, and second need is the hacker can’t create two messages producing the same hash value.

Cryptographic authentication

As per the latest survey MD5 hashes are no longer considered cryptographically secure, and they should not be used alone for cryptographic authentication. But, incorporating MD5 with TLS 1.3 could be a great cryptographically security for any website or application. Most of the corporate companies are now adopting TLS 1.3 for their web server along with web applications.

The padded message digest algorithm

The padded message digest is a multiple of 512 bits and, therefore, it is also a multiple of 32 bits. Let M stands for message and N stands for 32-bit words in the padded message. Because of the padding reason, N is known as a multiple of 16.

Four-word buffer

A,B,C,D  the 4-word buffer  formulae is applied to calculate the message digest and each of them is a 32-bit register. For illustration, find some hexadecimal values at the initialization stage:

• Word A: 01 21 46 65
• Word B: 84 ac bd ef
• Word C: fe db ca 48
• Word D: 56 64 12 10

MD5 v/s MD4

The major differences between MD5 and MD4 are as follows.

Steps of security checking

MD5 has four steps of security checking, whereas MD4 has only three steps of checking. As a result, the MD5 includes 64 steps of firmness hash function whereas the MD4 has 48 steps of firmness hash function.

Constant

Each step of MD5 has function has an exclusive additive constant i.e. T(i), whereas each step of MD4 has fixed constant for hash security checking function purpose. So, MD4 is not much efficient like MD5 for restricting hackers.

G function

The G function in the 2nd step of MD5 is less symmetric than MD4’s G function.

Result adding difference

In MD5, the result of the previous step is added to the result of the next step, which does not happen in MD4. This algorithm ensures the fastest modification of security calculation is to produce a powerful effect.

Input Order

In MD5, the accepting orders of input words are not similar in the 2nd and 3rd rounds of MD4.

Avalanche effect

As per RFC 1321, the shift amounts in each step are approximately optimized, to apply a quicker ‘avalanche effect’." Also, the shifts incorporated in each round of MD5 are different, which does not happen at all in MD4.

Drawbacks of MD5

Updated Security deliberation for MD5

As per IETF’s RFC 6151, the HMAC-MD5 Algorithm has got many citations on different security threats against MD5 hashes, mainly one that created hash collisions in a minute or less on a typical notebook and another that could make a collision in as little as 8 seconds on a 2.66 GHz P4 system. It’s not much secured to use as per IETF.

Collision resistant

A collision occurs when two hash values become equal. To perform properly, each single hash value needs to be distinctive. Because this functionality is required for well-liked authentication protocols like SSL or TLS and hence MD5 has often been replaced with other advanced hash algorithms in the latest version of SSL and TLS 1.3.

As per the latest survey, it’s found that MD5 is completely failed to provide Cryptographic message authentication. Although MD5 was designed as a cryptographic authentication message algorithm for web servers and web applications, MD5 hash is no longer eligible for cryptographic security due to uncontrollable collision.

Conclusion

In sum, security engineers and other technical professionals are well-aware about long lists of hash algorithms with various properties. MD5 and other hash algorithms are often considered as "message digest functions. The logic here is that a hash receives an original value and processes the same and gives outputs with a replacement value that is considerably different from the original value. Check with us for latest security trends and applications which could keep your websites more secured than the before. Also, if you have any more queries relevant to SHA-1, and SHA-512, feel free to ask us. Here, we provide latest website applications with latest security trends like SSL 3.0 or TLS 1.3.

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