B-Con
MD5 - C
• Posted by Brad Conte on June 21, 2006
• Post Categories: My Code
Algorithm
This is an implementation of the MD5 hash algorithm.

Code Documentation
  • MD5_CTX
    A MD5 structure that will hold all hash-related data and calculations as the hash is calculated.

  • md5_init(MD5_CTX *ctx)
    Initializes the MD5_CTX object.

  • md5_update(MD5_CTX *ctx, unsigned char data[], int len)
    Once an object has been created and initialized, the data to be hashed must be added. Due to practical limitations, it may not be optimal (or possible) to add all the data to the MD5 hash in one data chunk, so the function inputs, stores, and calculates data as it is received, allowing the data to be added in as many chunks as necessary.

    • unsigned char data[]
      This is the data to be added to the hash.
    • int len
      This is the length, in bytes, of the data in the “data” array.


  • md5_final(MD5_CTX *ctx, unsigned char hash[])
    Finalize and output the hash.

    • unsigned char hash[]
      This is the array to store the output hash. It must be at least 16 bytes in size.
Code Usage
  1. Create an MD5_CTX object.
  2. Initialize it with md5_init().
  3. Read some/all of the data to hash into an array, calculate the size of the data, and add it to the hash with md5_update().
  4. Repeat the previous step for all the data you want to hash.
  5. Finalize and output the hash with md5_final().
Repeat steps (2) to (5) for as many hashes as you want to calculate.

Code
Source Code
Sample Driver Program

Notes
The 32-bit words (which in this case are unsigned integers) used in the code assume little endian byte ordering. The MD5 specification uses the big endian byte order, so some byte-reversals are made when copying data into and out of integers in this code.

This algorithm has not actually been optimized, although some general attempts have been made to that effect. This algorithm has been tested against numerous test vectors (including all official ones) and has proved to be accurate.

This algorithm can hash data of any length, although 264 bits (2,147,483,648 gigabytes) is the recommended limit.

Note, that MD5 is no longer considered a reasonably secure hash algorithm. It is recommended that a hash algorithm such as Whirlpool, RIPEMD, or SHA1 (with double the number of standard rounds) be used rather than MD5.
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