SEO

Hi,

Is it possible to have 2 files that are different sizes, but have the
same md5sum value?

TIA,
-T

gamename wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Is it possible to have 2 files that are different sizes, but have the
> same md5sum value?
>
Quite possible, though rather unlikely.

>Is it possible to have 2 files that are different sizes, but have the
>same md5sum value?

Yes, but it's very very ... very unlikely.

In particular, it's very hard for a bad-guy to make a second file
with the same md5sum. One idea is to be hard to forge documents
for example a check with a big payment starting with a valid check,
or to install malware in software distributions.

--
These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's. I hate spam.

On Apr 22, 2:11 pm, gamename <namesagame-use...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Is it possible to have 2 files that are different sizes, but have the
> same md5sum value?
>
> TIA,
> -T

The odds of this happening are very rare indeed. The md5 hash is
calculated via a mathematical algorithm and has a set length. I will
not jump into the finer details of the algorithm, but yes it can
happen.

- Dominic Salemno

gamename <namesagame-usenet@yahoo.com> writes:

>Hi,

>Is it possible to have 2 files that are different sizes, but have the
>same md5sum value?

Yes. Any two files, each of arbitrary size (at least one >40 bytes)
will have roughly a
1/1000000000000000000000000000000000000000 chance of having the same MD5
sum.



>TIA,
>-T

gamename writes:
>Is it possible to have 2 files that are different sizes, but have the
>same md5sum value?

> Yes. Any two files, each of arbitrary size (at least one >40 bytes) will
> have roughly a 1/1000000000000000000000000000000000000000 chance of
> having the same MD5 sum.

Which means that if you can test a million files a second you will need on
the order of 10000000000000000000000000 years to find a match.
--
John Hasler
john@dhh.gt.org
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI USA