xref: /freebsd/lib/libmd/mdX.3 (revision a0ee8cc6)
1.\"
2.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.\" "THE BEER-WARE LICENSE" (Revision 42):
4.\" <phk@FreeBSD.org> wrote this file.  As long as you retain this notice you
5.\" can do whatever you want with this stuff. If we meet some day, and you think
6.\" this stuff is worth it, you can buy me a beer in return.   Poul-Henning Kamp
7.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.\"
9.\" $FreeBSD$
10.\"
11.Dd February 11, 1999
12.Dt MDX 3
13.Os
14.Sh NAME
15.Nm MDXInit ,
16.Nm MDXUpdate ,
17.Nm MDXPad ,
18.Nm MDXFinal ,
19.Nm MDXEnd ,
20.Nm MDXFile ,
21.Nm MDXFileChunk ,
22.Nm MDXData
23.Nd calculate the RSA Data Security, Inc., ``MDX'' message digest
24.Sh LIBRARY
25.Lb libmd
26.Sh SYNOPSIS
27.In sys/types.h
28.In mdX.h
29.Ft void
30.Fn MDXInit "MDX_CTX *context"
31.Ft void
32.Fn MDXUpdate "MDX_CTX *context" "const void *data" "unsigned int len"
33.Ft void
34.Fn MDXPad "MDX_CTX *context"
35.Ft void
36.Fn MDXFinal "unsigned char digest[16]" "MDX_CTX *context"
37.Ft "char *"
38.Fn MDXEnd "MDX_CTX *context" "char *buf"
39.Ft "char *"
40.Fn MDXFile "const char *filename" "char *buf"
41.Ft "char *"
42.Fn MDXFileChunk "const char *filename" "char *buf" "off_t offset" "off_t length"
43.Ft "char *"
44.Fn MDXData "const void *data" "unsigned int len" "char *buf"
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46The MDX functions calculate a 128-bit cryptographic checksum (digest)
47for any number of input bytes.
48A cryptographic checksum is a one-way
49hash-function, that is, you cannot find (except by exhaustive search)
50the input corresponding to a particular output.
51This net result is a
52.Dq fingerprint
53of the input-data, which does not disclose the actual input.
54.Pp
55MD4 is the fastest and MD5 is somewhat slower.
56MD4 has now been broken; it should only be used where necessary for
57backward compatibility.
58MD5 has not yet (1999-02-11) been broken, but sufficient attacks have been
59made that its security is in some doubt.
60The attacks on both MD4 and MD5
61are both in the nature of finding
62.Dq collisions
63\[en]
64that is, multiple
65inputs which hash to the same value; it is still unlikely for an attacker
66to be able to determine the exact original input given a hash value.
67.Pp
68The
69.Fn MDXInit ,
70.Fn MDXUpdate ,
71and
72.Fn MDXFinal
73functions are the core functions.
74Allocate an
75.Vt MDX_CTX ,
76initialize it with
77.Fn MDXInit ,
78run over the data with
79.Fn MDXUpdate ,
80and finally extract the result using
81.Fn MDXFinal .
82.Pp
83The
84.Fn MDXPad
85function can be used to pad message data in same way
86as done by
87.Fn MDXFinal
88without terminating calculation.
89.Pp
90The
91.Fn MDXEnd
92function is a wrapper for
93.Fn MDXFinal
94which converts the return value to a 33-character
95(including the terminating '\e0')
96.Tn ASCII
97string which represents the 128 bits in hexadecimal.
98.Pp
99The
100.Fn MDXFile
101function calculates the digest of a file, and uses
102.Fn MDXEnd
103to return the result.
104If the file cannot be opened, a null pointer is returned.
105The
106.Fn MDXFileChunk
107function is similar to
108.Fn MDXFile ,
109but it only calculates the digest over a byte-range of the file specified,
110starting at
111.Fa offset
112and spanning
113.Fa length
114bytes.
115If the
116.Fa length
117parameter is specified as 0, or more than the length of the remaining part
118of the file,
119.Fn MDXFileChunk
120calculates the digest from
121.Fa offset
122to the end of file.
123The
124.Fn MDXData
125function calculates the digest of a chunk of data in memory, and uses
126.Fn MDXEnd
127to return the result.
128.Pp
129When using
130.Fn MDXEnd ,
131.Fn MDXFile ,
132or
133.Fn MDXData ,
134the
135.Fa buf
136argument can be a null pointer, in which case the returned string
137is allocated with
138.Xr malloc 3
139and subsequently must be explicitly deallocated using
140.Xr free 3
141after use.
142If the
143.Fa buf
144argument is non-null it must point to at least 33 characters of buffer space.
145.Sh SEE ALSO
146.Xr md4 3 ,
147.Xr md5 3 ,
148.Xr sha 3
149.Rs
150.%A R. Rivest
151.%T The MD4 Message-Digest Algorithm
152.%O RFC 1186
153.Re
154.Rs
155.%A R. Rivest
156.%T The MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm
157.%O RFC 1321
158.Re
159.Rs
160.%A H. Dobbertin
161.%T Alf Swindles Ann
162.%J CryptoBytes
163.%N 1(3):5
164.%D 1995
165.Re
166.Rs
167.%A MJ. B. Robshaw
168.%T On Recent Results for MD2, MD4 and MD5
169.%J RSA Laboratories Bulletin
170.%N 4
171.%D November 12, 1996
172.Re
173.Sh HISTORY
174These functions appeared in
175.Fx 2.0 .
176.Sh AUTHORS
177The original MDX routines were developed by
178.Tn RSA
179Data Security, Inc., and published in the above references.
180This code is derived directly from these implementations by
181.An Poul-Henning Kamp Aq Mt phk@FreeBSD.org .
182.Pp
183Phk ristede runen.
184.Sh BUGS
185No method is known to exist which finds two files having the same hash value,
186nor to find a file with a specific hash value.
187There is on the other hand no guarantee that such a method does not exist.
188