Your manager is considering purchasing a message authentication system. She is c
ID: 3794319 • Letter: Y
Question
Your manager is considering purchasing a message authentication system. She is considering 3 different systems. One system uses MD5 hashing, another uses SHA2 hashing and the other system uses a brand new hashing algorithm called VSH (Very Smooth Hash). You have been asked to prepare an executive summary (i.e. clear and concise) that describes the attributes of each algorithm and the pros and cons. You should consider reviewing each algorithm along the same primary dimensions and then focus on differentiating factors where appropriate.
What would your recommendation be and why?
Explanation / Answer
MD5 : MD5 is message digest algorithm and it takes message of arbitrary length and gives 128 bit hash code as output.
It is not bounded with input data size. hence there are more chances of collision. This weakness allows attackers to generate inputs for which output hash will be similar. This allows attackers to create two messages , or executable binaries such that their MD5 fingerprint(output) are similar. one of those message binary would be innocent and the other malicious.
hence it is cryptographically broken and not advised to use further.
SHA 2: There are various functions in SHA2 family. They have same construction properties as SHA1. It is more secure than MD5.
Most latest commonly used browsers, servers, email client and mobile devices support SHA-256(one of the function of SHA-2). but old systems such as windows XP and some mobile devises dont support SHA 2. So SHA-2 is good choice if you want to use it in updates systems.
SHA2 is collision- resistant. It's functions generate output of 256 bits or 512 bits
VSH : It uses RSA arithmetic and hence it is useful in embedded environment where code space is limites.
- Message length in VSH is not needed to be known in advanced.
- finding collision is very difficult in VSH.
- since output length of VSH is length of secure RSA modulus, VSH seem suitable for constructing hash-then-sign RSA signature for arbitrary large message
it needs one multiplication per log n bits
I would recommend to use VSH because of its advantages and it is most secure too .
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