Collision Attacks on MD5 and SHA-1: Is this the "Sword of Damocles" for Electronic Commerce?

Abstract

Since Wang et al. announced their results regarding the susceptibility of MD5 (Crypto’04) and SHA-1 (Crypto’05) hash functions to collision attacks, there have been many papers advancing further aspects of these attacks. What has been lacking is an analysis of the legal effect of these attacks upon electronic commerce transactions. As technological advancements are made, the law will need to adjust so as to take account of these attacks so that there does not arise a total undermining of the electronic commerce environment. The legal implications of these attacks need to be understood so that the courts do not over react and thus destroy any confidence commerce currently has in operating in the electronic commerce environment. This paper explores the legal implications of these attacks where certain software applications rely, in part, upon either MD5 or SHA-1.

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