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EC-Council

312-50V10 · Question #119

Which of the following Secure Hashing Algorithm (SHA) produces a 160-bit digest from a message with a maximum length of (264-1) bits and resembles the MD5 algorithm?

The correct answer is C. SHA-1. SHA-1 is the SHA variant that produces a 160-bit message digest from messages up to (2^64 - 1) bits in length and was designed with structural similarities to the MD5 algorithm.

Cryptography

Question

Which of the following Secure Hashing Algorithm (SHA) produces a 160-bit digest from a message with a maximum length of (264-1) bits and resembles the MD5 algorithm?

Options

  • ASHA-2
  • BSHA-3
  • CSHA-1
  • DSHA-0

How the community answered

(43 responses)
  • A
    2% (1)
  • C
    93% (40)
  • D
    5% (2)

Why each option

SHA-1 is the SHA variant that produces a 160-bit message digest from messages up to (2^64 - 1) bits in length and was designed with structural similarities to the MD5 algorithm.

ASHA-2

SHA-2 is a family of hash functions producing digests of 224, 256, 384, or 512 bits, none of which equal the 160-bit output specified in the question.

BSHA-3

SHA-3 uses a fundamentally different sponge construction rather than the Merkle-Damgard structure of MD5, and does not specifically resemble MD5 in design.

CSHA-1Correct

SHA-1, defined in FIPS PUB 180-4, produces a fixed 160-bit (20-byte) hash digest and accepts messages of up to (2^64 - 1) bits. It was developed by NIST and NSA and explicitly modeled after MD5's Merkle-Damgard construction, using similar compression functions and word operations, which is why the question notes it 'resembles' MD5.

DSHA-0

SHA-0 also produced a 160-bit digest but was withdrawn by NSA before publication due to an undisclosed flaw; SHA-1 is the corrected successor and is the version that formally resembles MD5 and matches the maximum message length described.

Concept tested: SHA-1 hash output size and MD5 resemblance

Source: https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/detail/fips/180/4/final

Topics

#SHA-1#hash algorithm#160-bit digest#cryptographic hash

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