MD4 is not strong- people can deliberately produce files with the same hash in a matter of minutes. MD5 is secure for now, but it seems to be gradually falling to cryptanalysis, and should be phased out of use before it breaks. IMO the best hash algorithm is SHA1 (which is an updated version of the original SHA). Do a web search for "FIPS PUB 180-1" for the specs.
Do you have references to the md4 collision stuff? The situation I have is a bit unusual so its just possible some of the results may apply.
Sorry, I was actually thinking of two-pass Snerfu that can be collided in a matter of minutes... I'm fairly certain that MD4 is collidable, but I don't remember where I read that, and I'm not sure how much time it would take. I'm quite certain that MD4 will not collide by accident, so it would probably be okay for you. ===================================================================== | Steve Reid - SysAdmin & Pres, EDM Web (http://www.edmweb.com/) | | Email: steve@edmweb.com Home Page: http://www.edmweb.com/steve/ | | PGP (2048/9F317269) Fingerprint: 11C89D1CD67287E68C09EC52443F8830 | | -- Disclaimer: JMHO, YMMV, TANSTAAFL, IANAL. -- | ===================================================================:)