MD5 Hash Generator
Generate a 128-bit MD5 hash, shown as 32 hexadecimal characters. Browsers do not provide MD5 natively, so this is implemented in JavaScript on this page — your input is still never transmitted.
MD5 is broken for security
Say this plainly: MD5 has been cryptographically broken since 2004, and collisions — two different inputs producing the same hash — can now be generated in seconds on ordinary hardware. Researchers have built colliding files, and in 2012 the Flame malware used an MD5 collision to forge a Microsoft code-signing certificate. Never use MD5 for passwords, signatures, certificates, or any security decision. Use SHA-256 for integrity, and bcrypt or Argon2 for passwords.
What it is still legitimately used for
- Verifying legacy checksums. Plenty of older software still publishes MD5 sums, and checking one detects accidental corruption fine.
- Detecting duplicate files. Comparing MD5s is a quick way to find identical files, since accidental collisions never occur.
- Cache keys and shard keys. Where you need a fast, evenly distributed fingerprint and an attacker has nothing to gain.
- ETags and change detection. Non-security uses where speed matters more than collision resistance.
"MD5 decrypt" does not exist
MD5 is a hash, not encryption, so there is no key and nothing to decrypt. Sites advertising MD5 decryption are running lookup tables of precomputed hashes for common inputs — they can reveal "password123" instantly because someone already hashed it, but they cannot reverse an arbitrary string. This also demonstrates why unsalted password hashes are worthless: if your password is anything ordinary, its MD5 is already in a public table.