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Asked: 2026-05-25T01:56:54+00:00

I know that MD5 produces a 128-bit digest. My question is, how does it

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I know that MD5 produces a 128-bit digest. My question is, how does it produce this fixed length output from a message of 128bits+?

EDIT:

I have now a greater understanding of hashing functions now. After reading this article I have realized that hash functions are one-way, meaning that you can’t convert the hash back to plaintext. I was under the misimpression that you could due to all the online services converting them back to strings, but I have realised that thats just rainbow tables (collections of string’s mapped to pre-computed hashes).

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  1. Editorial Team

    When you generate an MD5 hash, you’re not compressing the input data. Compression implies that you’ll be able to uncompress it back to it’s original state. MD5, on the other hand, is a one-way process. This is why it’s used for password storage; you ideally have to know the original input string to be able to generate the same MD5 result again.

    This page provides a nice graphic-equipped explanation of MD5 and similar hash functions, and how they’re used: An Illustrated Guide to Cryptographic Hashes

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