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Look the point is that Ogren seems to think this is some sort of a minor technicality and that we can safely ignore it most of the time. Thats simply not prudent. Once you find that the key properties of your cryptographic hash have fallen and you have to be exceptionally careful about what you put through the hash lest an attacker somehow influence it, you've lost the game. MD5 is no longer trustworthy. I agree that one needn't run screaming in the streets, but Ogren made it sound as though this wasn't a matter of concern. Thats simply wrong. Saying that leads people to a completely incorrect conclusion.

And I told myself I wouldn't respond to this thread anymore. Oh well. I just don't want to be misinterpreted. I never meant to imply (and don't think that I did), that the attacks against MD5 were insignificant. As I said, I'm moving to SHA in any software I develop from now on. What I said was the attacks were insignificant in the application being considered (rsync) and that MD5 was not completely broken. Come on, all the guy wanted was a fast 128 bit checksum. For example, I am still using PGP clearsigning which, of course, uses MD5. Dobbertin indicates that his attack cannot be used against me as long as I only sign messages that I create myself. Yes, PGP would work better with SHA. I'd be able to sign documents that others created with (more) certainty. But that doesn't mean that I should stop using PGP. P.S. I apologize to the list for flooding this list recently. Unfortunately, I took it a little too personally when Perry told me to "stop spewing inaccurate information" and to "quit posting". It was late, and I let him bait me more than I ordinarily would. Now I find myself running in circles trying to make sure that I've made myself clear and that no one else (other than Perry) is misintepreting what I'm saying. - -- David F. Ogren | ogren@concentric.net | "A man without religion is like a fish PGP Key ID: 0x6458EB29 | without a bicycle" - ------------------------------|---------------------------------------- Don't know what PGP is? | Need my public key? It's available Send a message to me with the | by server or by sending me a message subject GETPGPINFO | with the subject GETPGPKEY -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQEVAwUBMdgDbuSLhCBkWOspAQGPeQf/QJB109Gjd3s/ALodykZgH0S6FCs3wHK7 OiTUpxBF5lwojhBSrz7ej1RnAW+Uq5Lcz/GyWqH6rvYPPI1uZ3023UAV3nqH8qXY nnznPfvTkUQgSjaQu/YRvWlTWwrNsW/KIR6iVbwVDnbUnvuAjUJskWyAg1Wz4zIV 8PV8RnrHSTT06j5LrCtiD0eWr/NgmpgIFS5+ID5z9/ikMV6xF4zSrlubELFFJUUT M3nZWDlr7SaU0hFLQt3yu6oSqAjKSGrPsU1QCJ/Y1zdS49R/cLIzOzbQ42R1Cyot hMnAayTqNdUI/goa2WAbda3gYpRodTA2GpciNj7u3xs0Ik/1TIEqlw== =4x7D -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----