4 ms·
You could, but it’s theoretically possible to have keys whose hashes always collide, even with different hash functions. This is not a purely theoretical conce
by mikeash 8y ago
You could, but it’s theoretically possible to have keys whose hashes always collide, even with different hash functions.
This is not a purely theoretical concern, I should note. There are practical DoS attacks that can be carried out by deliberately crafting colliding keys. The current state of the art seems to be to make it impractical for attackers to accomplish this by incorporating secret data into the hash function, rather than by ensuring the theoretical worst case is acceptable. Which is probably the right approach.