Re: Linux Kernel Summit

Greg Hudson <ghudson@MIT.EDU>:
> The terms [hash and checksum] are used interchangeably as far as I
> know. If there is a difference, it would relate to the use of such
> algorithms in authentication systems, which isn't what we're doing.
> For our purposes, MD5 makes a perfectly good checksum algorithm.

A checksum is a way of using a hash function -- the latter labels what
you're doing, the former why you're doing it.

MD5 is indeed a perfectly good checksum algorithm -- in fact, the
properties that make it good for crypto are exactly those that make it
good for detecting data corruption.

-- 
		Eric S. Raymond
The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun.
	-- R. Buckminster Fuller