On 2009-01-06 22:42, Lukas Lueg wrote:
> Lukas Lueg <knabberknusperhaus@yahoo.de> added the comment:
> 
> As I already said to Raymond: At least we should update the
> documentation. The "FAQ" currently linked is from 2005.
>
> The CERT-Advisory from provides a clean and simple language: "In 2008,
> researchers demonstrated the practical vulnerability [...] We are
> currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem. *Do not use
> the MD5 algorithm*."

That's a correct statement for cryptographic work based on MD5.

However, it's not true with respect to using MD5 as fast general
purpose hash algorithm in non-crypto applications, so I think the
warning on http://docs.python.org/library/hashlib.html is sufficient.

Note that the various SHA implementations are also starting to
get some heat lately, so it's only a question of time until these
get excluded from the set of cryptographic hash functions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographic_hash_function

also see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_function

"""
Hash functions are related to (and often confused with) checksums, check digits,
fingerprints, randomizing functions, error correcting codes, and cryptographic
hash functions. Although these concepts overlap to some extent, each has its own
uses and requirements.
"""

It might be a good idea to remove the word "secure" from the
hashlib documentation, since security of these algorithms is
always limited to a certain period of time.