Talk:MD5

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the MD5 article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1: 90 days

Cryptography: Computer science Top‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Cryptography, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Cryptography on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CryptographyWikipedia:WikiProject CryptographyTemplate:WikiProject CryptographyCryptography articles
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the importance scale.
	This article is supported by WikiProject Computer science (assessed as High-importance).

Computing: Networking / Software / Websites / CompSci / Security Mid‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Computing, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of computers, computing, and information technology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ComputingWikipedia:WikiProject ComputingTemplate:WikiProject ComputingComputing articles

Mid

This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

This article is supported by Networking task force (assessed as Mid-importance).

This article is supported by WikiProject Software (assessed as High-importance).

This article is supported by WikiProject Websites (assessed as High-importance).

This article is supported by WikiProject Computer science (assessed as Mid-importance).

This article is supported by WikiProject Computer Security (assessed as High-importance).

Things you can help WikiProject Computer science with:

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests :
- Requested articles/Applied arts and sciences/Computer science, computing, and Internet
Cleanup :
- Computer science articles needing attention
- Computer science articles needing expert attention
Copyedit :
- Computing
Expand :
- Computer science
Infobox :
- Computer science articles without infoboxes
Maintain :
- Timeline of computing 2020–present
Photo :
- Find pictures for the biographies of computer scientists (see List of computer scientists)
- Computing articles needing images
Stubs :
- Computer science stubs
Unreferenced :
- WikiProject Computer science/Unreferenced BLPs
Project-related :
- Tag all relevant articles in Category:Computer science and sub-categories with {{WikiProject Computer science}}

Internet Mid‑importance

	Internet portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Internet, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the Internet on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.InternetWikipedia:WikiProject InternetTemplate:WikiProject InternetInternet articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Need to more prominently address vulnerabilities

I strongly feel that the first sentence of this article needs to call attention to the fundamental insecurity of MD5 as a cryptographic hash function. It's literally the first thing that anyone needs to know about it. Some people are not aware of this and continue, even to this day, to use MD5 as a cryptographic hash function despite its unsuitability for this purpose.

I made such an edit on 26 Aug 2023 but it was reverted, the editor making the reversion said simply "Npov". Is there anything non neutral about the edit I made? Everything I said is absolutely accurate according to verifiable sources already cited in the article. Indeed everything I said in my edit the article already said; all I did was move that accurate and verifiable information into the lead sentence.

Another user again added mention of the algorithm's insecurity on 16 Mar 2024, but it was again reverted. This time the reverting editor stated "There's nothing insecure about a hash function, it does what's it supposed to do; the way we used it". This is a bizarre statement, "There's nothing insecure about a hash function"; there certainly is something (very) insecure about this hash function, and it absolutely does not do what it was supposed to do, and presumed to do, when it was designed and first widely implemented. Again, as all already discussed in detail in the article: "Historically it was widely used as a cryptographic hash function; however it has been found to suffer from extensive vulnerabilities. It remains suitable for other non-cryptographic purposes". Uh... right. So is there something wrong with saying it in the lead sentence? "The way we used it" is also a bizarre phrase: the way who used it?

What I, and the other editor, were trying to do, was merely give more prominence to information already discussed. I don't want to start an edit war, so I'm writing here.

Can anyone provide a justification for not stating the single most important fact about the topic of the article in the first sentence of the article?

If no one provides a real objection based in Wikipedia's policies and the facts about the article's topic as confirmed by verifiable sources, I'm going to again edit the first sentence to make clear what the article already accurately states lower down, that MD5 suffers from extensive vulnerabilities and is not suitable for cryptographic purposes.

75.166.157.156 (talk) 01:29, 31 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The second sentence already addresses the security issue with: " Historically it was widely used as a cryptographic hash function; however it has been found to suffer from extensive vulnerabilities.". Maria Gemmi (talk) 15:02, 2 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

1daf07170d53a5f0311283b7c9e87557vfdafehvevdvvdue

Hệ về heuusvdvddyuw và vdjdebvd

Bsgihevrheiegsheue 2401:D800:52FD:FCC5:8E85:554B:B54A:2852 (talk) 10:25, 22 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Facebook Password hack

Facebook Password hack 2409:40E5:1054:5132:D83F:32FF:FEA8:A099 (talk) 13:30, 10 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]