RFC 4270 · INFORMATIONAL · 2005

Attacks on Cryptographic Hashes in Internet Protocols

Overview

RFC 4270, “Attacks on Cryptographic Hashes in Internet Protocols”, is an Informational document published in December 2005 by P. Hoffman, B. Schneier. The canonical text is published by the RFC Editor.

Abstract

Recent announcements of better-than-expected collision attacks in popular hash algorithms have caused some people to question whether common Internet protocols need to be changed, and if so, how. This document summarizes the use of hashes in many protocols, discusses how the collision attacks affect and do not affect the protocols, shows how to thwart known attacks on digital certificates, and discusses future directions for protocol designers. This memo provides information for the Internet community.

Abstract as published in the RFC, via rfc-editor.org.

What “Informational” means

Published for the general information of the community. It does not define an IETF standard and carries no standards-track status.

Read this RFC

The canonical text of RFC 4270 is hosted at rfc-editor.org. Available in TXT,HTML.

Other RFCs from 2005

Who Is Online

In total there are 87 users online: 0 registered, 78 guests and 9 bots.

Most users ever online was 5,555 on 17 Jul 2026, 3:23 am.

Bots: AhrefsBot Applebot Baiduspider Bingbot Majestic Other Bot Other Spider PetalBot SemrushBot

Users active in the past 15 minutes. Total registered members: 372