Is MD5 still good enough to uniquely identify files?

hash md5
Ranhiru Jude Cooray picture Ranhiru Jude Cooray · Oct 27, 2010 · Viewed 61.5k times · Source

Is MD5 hashing a file still considered a good enough method to uniquely identify it given all the breaking of MD5 algorithm and security issues etc? Security is not my primary concern here, but uniquely identifying each file is.

Any thoughts?

Answer

Marcelo Cantos picture Marcelo Cantos · Oct 27, 2010

Yes. MD5 has been completely broken from a security perspective, but the probability of an accidental collision is still vanishingly small. Just be sure that the files aren't being created by someone you don't trust and who might have malicious intent.

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