Comparing MD5 and SHA-2 in password hashing

Kryzsko Commons Ballroom, Winona, Minnesota

Cryptographic applications are essential in tight security and super speed security applications. They ensure that they are encrypted by the sender when sending messages to either ensure authenticity or confirm invulnerability. Senders can achieve this by using a private key that verifies the sender's authenticity or a public key that the receiver would use to verify the security of the message. As a result, the hashing technique conceals the data from unauthorized individuals and outsiders. This hashing technique is vital as it ensures and confirms the user's authentication on both sides of the message. I analyzed and compared Message-digest algorithm 5 (MD5) and Secure Hash Algorithm 2 (SHA-2) algorithms to find the better cryptographic hash function in factoring in various key performance indexes such as speed, security, and performance. MD5 and SHA-2 are among the most used cryptographic hash functions globally. These hash functions are measured to be one-way operations for security purposes, meaning they should ideally make it impossible for outsiders to retrieve data using the hashes. Additionally, they are meant to be collision resistant. There should be no scenarios where the same hash should be produced from two different messages. Moreover, they are intended to check and verify data integrity and identify files as these hash functions are faster and easier to identify, than the data itself. After extensive research and use of open-source materials. It is safe to conclude, SHA-2 is a more modern and better cryptographic hash function compared to MD5, which is older and lacks some standard cryptographic hash function criteria. Although MD5 is 20% faster than SHA-2, this performance boost does not outweigh the security risks MD5 has as an algorithm. Therefore, MD5 is only suitable for low-security applications, such as being a checksum algorithm for file verification. On the other hand, SHA-2 should be the default algorithm of the two when prioritizing security over speed.