MD5 (Message Digest Algorithm 5) is a widely used cryptographic hash function that produces a 128-bit (32 hexadecimal characters) hash value. It was designed by Ronald Rivest in 1991 as an improvement over MD4. MD5 processes input text in 512-bit blocks and generates a fixed-size output regardless of input length, making it useful for data integrity verification and checksums.
While MD5 was once popular for security applications, it is now considered cryptographically broken due to vulnerabilities that allow collision attacks. Two different inputs can produce the same MD5 hash, making it unsuitable for password storage, digital signatures, or other security-critical applications. Modern applications should use SHA-256 or other secure hash functions instead.
Despite security limitations, MD5 remains useful for non-cryptographic purposes such as file integrity checks, data deduplication, and generating unique identifiers. It's fast to compute and widely supported across platforms. However, for any security-sensitive application, consider using SHA-256, SHA-3, or bcrypt for password hashing.