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If you're thinking about this from a mathmatical point of view, then this is a very big deal. Cryptographic hashes have the properties of being 1) hard to reverse, and 2) hard to find a collision. Since #2 is now violated, any algorithms that assumed #2 is true is now a broken algorithm (as well as any algorithms based on those algorithms, and so on).

Does it change practical uses of hashes? Maybe. It depends on your application.

"There is no shame in being self-taught, only in not trying to learn in the first place." -- Atrus, Myst: The Book of D'ni.

In reply to Re^2: On showing the weakness in the MD5 digest function and getting bitten by scalar context by hardburn
in thread On showing the weakness in the MD5 digest function and getting bitten by scalar context by grinder

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