RE: Generate hash code for a source member?

For what it is worth, MD5 and SHA-1 are both designed not just to be "good
hashes" but specifically designed against people taking Known Data A and
massaging it into Known Data B (where B is whatever it takes to make B have
the same hash as A).

It apparently is still possible to "cook" these functions, in that you can
eventually derive some sort of Known Data B, especially if you're not fussy
about what B contains, but it is claimed to take considerable effort and
possibly be "computationally infeasible".  I haven't studied it in detail,
but those are the general claims.  So, if you need "high probability" of no
fake matches, these are the primary choices nowadays as they are designed
not just with collision statistics in mind, but actual malice.

I can't speak to any possible licensing issues, not being a lawyer.  But, I
think you can code either up from the RFCs.  See your own laywer before
proceeding!

SHA-1 is supposed to be more "secure" from being faked out than MD5, but
that's just what I read on the net.  Don't know it for a fact.

Since this is the MI400 list, I won't point out that you can do the whole
job in Java with JDBC rather readily.  Depending on the tolerance for
communications costs, I could also see the Java code delivering the hash
from one system to the other, to avoid a manual comparison, even if the
files themselves can't be sent.


Larry W. Loen  -   speaking on his own