MD5 Hash Generator

MD5 Hash Generator Online

MD5 Hash generator is an online tool used to generate MD5 hash values for given string or a file. It is then further used to do checksum verification to verify integrity of the data.

What is MD5 Hash?

MD5 or Message Digest Algorithm 5, is one of the cryptographic hashing function used to generate 128-bit fixed length hash values. The MD5 hash value generated by this technique will contains a series of digits generated using a one-way hashing procedure. Message digests algorithms are used to verify integrity of a text or file data after transmission.

What MD5 is used for?

MD5 hash is mostly used as a checksum to verify integrity of the data or files transferred online. Below is the procedure followed to verify data integrity.

1. Generate MD5 hash value for the text or a file before sending to receiver.
2. Send the text or file along with MD5 generated hash value.
3. The receiver generates the MD5 hash value for the received file
4. If the generated hash value matches the senders hash value then the file is not modified during transmission.

Security Issues with MD5

MD5 is a highly compromised cryptographic algorithm and prone to collision issues. Use of MD5 hashing algorithm is discouraged in below scenarios.

1. Passwords - MD5 hashes are easy to generate and prone to dictionary attack.
2. File integrity checksum for online transmission - MD5 suffers from collision vulnerabilities and there can be two files with same hash values.
3. SSL certificates and digital signatures.

You can read more on security vulnerabilities in MD5 in wikipedia - MD5 Security vulnerabilities

Generate MD5 Hash in Python

We can use hashlib library in python for generating MD5 hashes.

1. encode() - Convert String to Bytes, as md5() accepts only bytes.
2. md5() - accepts bytes and generates md5 hash value in bytes.
3. digest() - used to convert hash generated in bytes to strings.

Refer below python code example to on how to generate MD5 Hash in python.

# Python3 MD5 Hash Generator
# Uses hashlib library
import hashlib

string_to_hash = "Welcome to facia.dev !!!"
result = hashlib.md5(string_to_hash.encode())
print(result.hexdigest())

# should print below hash in terminal
# e82f22a313ada31377067fbcc73cd7c6

Generate MD5 Hash in Java

We can use java.security.MessageDigest library in java for generating MD5 hashes. Refer below Java code example to on how to generate MD5 Hash in Java.

package dev.facia.examples;

import java.math.BigInteger;
import java.security.MessageDigest;
import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;

public class Md5Example {

  private static final String MD5 = "MD5";

  public static String generateMd5Hash(final String input) throws NoSuchAlgorithmException {
    // static MD5 hash instance.
    final MessageDigest messageDigest = MessageDigest.getInstance(MD5);
    // digest() is called to calculate digest and it returns hash in bytes.
    final byte[] hashInBytes = messageDigest.digest(input.getBytes());
    // Converts to signed representation
    final BigInteger sigNumRepresentationOfHash = new BigInteger(1, hashInBytes);
    // Converts to hex as text
    final StringBuilder hashAsText = new StringBuilder(signNumRepresentationOfHash.toString(16));
    // Pads 0 if size less that 32.
    while (hashAsText.length() < 32) {
      hashAsText.insert(0, "0");
    }
    return hashAsText.toString();
  }

  public static void main(String[] args) throws NoSuchAlgorithmException {
    final String str = "Welcome to facia.dev !!!";
    System.out.println("MD hash generated is -" + generateMd5Hash(str));
    // This will print as below
    // MD hash generated is - e82f22a313ada31377067fbcc73cd7c6
  }
}

Generate MD5 Hash in PHP

We can use MD5 Function in PHP for generating MD5 hashes. Refer below PHP code example to on how to generate MD5 Hash in PHP.

<?php
  $str = 'Welcome to facia.dev !!!';

  echo md5($str);

  // This will print as below
  // e82f22a313ada31377067fbcc73cd7c6
?>