[Gambas-user] MD5SUM collisions

[Rob]

On Friday 24 October 2008 15:10, Kari Laine wrote:
> referring to discussion few days back I have now tested md5sum with
> 540388 files and got NO collisions - I think. Method I used was to
> calculate md5sum and sha512sum for all those files.

I really think that the problem with md5sum collisions is relevant to 
security concerns, but not data integrity concerns.  In a security 
context, you have to say "It would have taken a hacker at least an hour to 
fake the md5sum on this file", but when you're just trying to prove a copy 
of a file you've just made is the same as the original, you can say "There 
is a 1 in 340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 chance that 
these two files with the same md5sum might be actually different.  With 
odds like that, I'll take my chances."

Like you, I'm using md5sums as a method of backup verification, not a 
password hash or the basis for encryption.  I think it's fine.

Rob