The threat abatement program manager tasked the software engineer with identifying the fastest implementation of a hash function to protect passwords with the least number of collisions. Which of…

Question

Options

• Ahash = sha512(password + salt);
• Bhash = md5(password + salt);
• Chash = sha512(password + salt);
• Dhash1 = sha1(password + salt);

• A
  6% (4)
• B
  2% (1)
• C
  89% (55)
• D
  3% (2)

Explanation

SHA-512 with a salt (option C: hash = sha512(password + salt)) is the best choice among the options. SHA-512 produces a 512-bit digest, giving an astronomically large output space that minimizes collision probability. Adding a salt ensures that identical passwords produce different hashes, defeating rainbow table attacks. MD5 (option B) is disqualified because it has known practical collision vulnerabilities. SHA-1 (option D) is cryptographically broken for collision resistance and is deprecated. Options A and C are textually identical as presented; the intended correct answer is SHA-512 with a salt, which is option C. Note: for password storage in modern systems, deliberately slow algorithms like bcrypt or Argon2 are preferred over fast SHA-512, but among the choices given, SHA-512 + salt is the strongest.

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