topic Decode hashed data in SAS Programming

Decode hashed data

amits — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 07:35:32 GMT

Hi There,

Is there any SAS function to decode hashed data. I ave hashed the data using MD5 function and wants to know how can I convert the MD5 values back to original.

Thanks in advance.

Re: Decode hashed data

PaulHomes — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 09:27:00 GMT

Hi,

MD5 is a one-way secure hash function and as such you are not supposed to be able to convert an MD5 hash value back to the original. MD5 is/was often used for verifying passwords without having to store the password, and so you can imagine how unsuitable it would be if you could easily derive a password from its MD5 hash 🙂

For more info on SAS MD5 function see http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lrdict/63026/HTML/default/a003064419.htm and for info on the MD5 algorithm see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD5

Cheers
Paul

Re: Decode hashed data

andreas_lds — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 09:32:29 GMT

MD5 is a one-way hash-function, restoring the originial value is not easy. I doubt that it can be done within SAS.

More information about the md5-algorithm can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Md5

Re: Decode hashed data

amits — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 23:05:58 GMT

Thanks guys!!