312-50V9 · Question #94
Which of the following is a hashing algorithm?
The correct answer is A. MD5. MD5 is a well-known cryptographic hashing algorithm that produces a fixed 128-bit digest; the other choices are encryption or encoding schemes, not hash functions.
Question
Which of the following is a hashing algorithm?
Options
- AMD5
- BPGP
- CDES
- DROT13
How the community answered
(54 responses)- A94% (51)
- B2% (1)
- D4% (2)
Why each option
MD5 is a well-known cryptographic hashing algorithm that produces a fixed 128-bit digest; the other choices are encryption or encoding schemes, not hash functions.
MD5 (Message Digest 5) is a one-way hashing algorithm that takes arbitrary input and produces a fixed-length 128-bit hash value, making it impossible to reverse-engineer the original data from the digest alone. It is commonly used for file integrity verification and stored password hashing, though it is now considered cryptographically broken for security-sensitive uses.
PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is a data encryption and digital signing program that uses asymmetric and symmetric encryption - it is not a hashing algorithm.
DES (Data Encryption Standard) is a symmetric-key block cipher used for encrypting data, not a hashing algorithm.
ROT13 is a simple Caesar cipher substitution encoding that shifts letters by 13 positions - it is reversible and provides no cryptographic integrity, so it is neither a hash function nor a secure algorithm.
Concept tested: Identifying hashing algorithms versus encryption schemes
Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/security/cryptographic-services
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