Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: "Robin H.Johnson" <robbat2@g.o>
To: Fred Van Andel <fava@g.o>
Cc: gentoo-dev@g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] (crazy?) proposal to reduce load and disk on mirrors
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 07:30:31
Message-Id: 20030724073030.GD770@cherenkov.orbis-terrarum.net
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-dev] (crazy?) proposal to reduce load and disk on mirrors by Fred Van Andel
1 On Tue, Jul 22, 2003 at 11:42:26PM -0700, Fred Van Andel wrote:
2 > As for the security of MD5, there is no published instance of anyone
3 > finding 2 different datasets that produce an identical hash value. MD5
4 > is a 128 bit hash algorithm so in theory it would be be required to
5 > calculate approximately 1.2 * sqrt(2^128) different hashes in order to
6 > have a 50% chance of a single collision. That would require > 350
7 > billion gigabytes just to store the hashes. I believe MD5 to be secure
8 > enough for this application.
9 I'd be VERY careful with this.
10 http://www.rsasecurity.com/rsalabs/faq/3-6-6.html
11
12 I've seen much more recent research into it myself, along with a way of
13 making it SIGNIFICENTLY more difficult to break.
14
15 Namely, store the correct filesize along with the MD5 sum in a
16 verifiable fashion. Having file containing a list of tarballs and their
17 sizes, then providing a GPG signature for that file makes solves the
18 issue to a level such that even all the computers in the world in 10
19 years could not beat it [famous last words, after seeing the
20 crypto-attack on RSA keys using a massive NFS setup].
21
22 --
23 Robin Hugh Johnson
24 E-Mail : robbat2@××××××××××××××.net
25 Home Page : http://www.orbis-terrarum.net/?l=people.robbat2
26 ICQ# : 30269588 or 41961639
27 GnuPG FP : 11AC BA4F 4778 E3F6 E4ED F38E B27B 944E 3488 4E85

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