The MD5 algorithm is a well-known algorithm for computing a 128-bit checksum for any file or object. The likelihood of two ...

The MD5 algorithm is a well-known algorithm for computing a 128-bit  checksum for any file or object. The likelihood of two different   files producing the same MD5 checksum is very small  (about 1 in 2^64), and as such, the MD5 checksum of a file can be  used to construct a reliable content identifier that is very  likely to uniquely identify the file. The reverse is also true.  If two files have the same MD5 checksum, it is very likely that  the files are identical. For purposes of MOF specification  of the MD5 property, the MD5 algorithm always generates a 32  character string. For example: The string abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz  generates the string c3fcd3d76192e4007dfb496cca67e13b. See http://www. rsa.com/pub/rfc1321.txt for details on the implementation of the MD5  algorithm.