Is it possible to decrypt MD5 in PHP?

In this article we will analyze if it is possible to decrypt MD5 in PHP, and we will also understand how this hash is used to save passwords works

What’s up programmer, ok? Let’s learn more about PHP and the MD5 hash!

The string generated by encrypting another string using the md5 method in PHP, cannot be decrypted

Because it is a unidirectional function, that is, when the text is encrypted, there is no turning back.

So, what is stored in the database, when we save a client’s password, for example, is not the password itself, but the password hash

When the user tries to login, the password will be re-encrypted and compared to the saved hash.

If both are the same, the user will be authenticated, if not, he will receive an error

Brute Force

The only possibility to break md5 is through brute force

And that would be having a huge database with several texts and hitting one by one with the encrypted data that we want to discover

However, most applications nowadays have treatment for this type of request, as there will be numerous login attempts, for example, to discover a password.

Once the hacker is identified, his IP is blocked from accessing the site

It is important to mention that a large part of password hacks is part of social engineering

Which is a way of analyzing the person’s behavior and trying to discover their information

For example: secret question about her first pet, social engineering could discover this information

Curiosity

MD5 is 128 bits, no matter how big or small the original content is, a string of that size will always be generated

And that means there are 2¹²⁸ possibilities

Conclusion

In this article if it is possible to decrypt MD5

And we learned that there is no way to decrypt it, because when the algorithm is applied, there is no going back.

So the means that are used to crack people’s passwords are usually: brute force or social engineering