Difference between SHA and MD5

There are many types of networks present to fulfill the different needs of the people around the world. As the network systems are increasing the threats for the network systems are also increasing. The hashing algorithms are used to increase the safety of the network systems. The hashing systems provide the security systems which provide safety for the data of multimedia network systems. They also provide security for authentication of multimedia networks.

The SHA and the MD5 are the part of the hashing systems which helps in providing the security for the networks. The hashing systems include many other algorithms but in this article, we are going to study the key differences between the SHA and MD5 hashing algorithms or systems.

SHA

The full form of SHA is Secure Hash Algorithm. SHA is one of the hashing algorithms and it is derived from the MD5 algorithm by making some changes and improving the performance of the algorithm. The SHA is mainly used to provide security for the networking systems of different types. It helps in protecting the data authentication of multimedia.

The SHA algorithm was firstly developed by NIST. It is a major institution located in United States. The SHA algorithm is one of the types of cryptographic hash function. There are many hashing systems derived from the SHA. They are SHA-2, SHA-256, SHA-384 and SHA-512. The SHA is a one-way hash function and the maximum length of the message that can be processed using the SHA hashing algorithm is about 2⁶⁴ – to 2¹²⁸bits. This is used to produce 160 -512 bits of message which can also be called as the message digest. The SHA algorithm commonly uses 160 bits hash function which is closely related to the MD5

MD5

MD5 is also one of the widely used hashing algorithms or hashing systems for improving the security for the data transferred in the network systems. MD5 is derived from the ubiquitous hashing algorithms. The MD5 algorithm is created and improved by Ron Rivest.

The MD5 can be used widely in different variety of internet applications. The MD5 is also a cryptographic hash system used to provide the safety for the data transmitted in the network systems. The MD5 algorithm is not only used for the security but it is also used for verifying the integrity of the files in the network systems. The MD5 algorithm works based on the predecessor of the MD4 algorithm. MD5 algorithm works on the blocks of data, and it uses the compression functions on the blocks.

The MD5 algorithm creates a string of 128 bits from the string of arbitrary length. The outputs produced by the MD5 algorithm are the strings of length 128bits, the outputs can be of different types like fingerprints and message digest which will be derived from the input that is provided to the algorithm.

Advantages of SHA

The SHA algorithm is widely used in calculators called checksum calculators because it provides the integrity as well as file verification.

Advantages of MD5

The MD5 is used widely in the network security protocols as well as in different internet application like SSH, SSL.
MD5 provides a high level security and it is easy to use.

Disadvantages of SHA

The SHA is a one-way hash function and it is hard to understand and use.
It cannot handle the data of length more than 2⁶⁴ to 2¹²⁸bits.

Disadvantages of MD5

The MD5 algorithm does not work properly in integration of files.
The MD5 algorithm only works on the blocks of data.