Kirk Pearson's Weblog

MD5 crypto flaw weakens Sun's Solaris Fingerprint Database

The MD5 encryption algorithm, widely used for things like bank Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), bank electronic fund transfers, the Apache web server, Sun's Solaris Fingerprint Database, and creating secure digital signatures, has been cracked. On August 17, four Chinese researchers released a paper detailing a way to exploit flaws in the MD5 algorithm. A distributed computing project, called MD5CRK began 6 months ago, with the goal of proving that the MD5 algorithm is vulnerable. With the project's most recent level of participation, it determined that it might need 200 years to find a collision of points which would defeat the algorithm. But the Chinese researchers' method can find a collision within one hour. A ZDNet article has more information about the reported flaws in MD5.