Question about hashing algorithms
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Question about hashing algorithms

From: <bigzaphod@gmail.com>
Date: Fri Aug 26 2005 - 22:02:25 CEST



Are any hashing algorithms that are secure for short data and have


short signatures?  As I understand it, SHA-1, MD5, etc. were pretty


much designed to work for any size of data.  Sometimes that seems like


overkill, though.  If I have small bits of data (say, a few kilobytes


or so) and I want to verify each chunk with a hash, it seems a little


wasteful to require a 160 bit hash that matches up with what might only


be 2K of data most of the time.



I have virtually no idea how the math works behind hashes, so this


might be a really stupid question...  Any helpful response would be


greatly appreciated!



Thanks,


Sean


Received on Thu Sep 29 21:50:59 2005