Chapter 100 This is cracked

Xu Yuan has been paying close attention to the progress on the panel these days. After the CET-5 exam, he found that the progress bar had reached %, which meant that Wang Xiaoyun's team had successfully cracked the MD password algorithm.

He was just about to call to congratulate them, but unexpectedly the other party called him first.

Wang Xiaoyun informed on the phone.

With the help of his new differential collision method, the team listed nearly three hundred sufficient conditions.

Successfully formulated a differential value writing attack algorithm.

Now we just need to use this attack algorithm to try to crack MD5.

Faced with this historic moment, he was specially invited to Qilu University to jointly conduct verification.

Especially after he informed Tang Shihong of the situation, the other party was so excited that he approved the vacation without saying a word, and even urged him to hurry up and set off.

Considering that Wang Xiaoyun and her entire team were waiting for him, Xu Yuan did not delay too much.

I bought the nearest bus ticket and headed to Quancheng.

……

"Junior."

"You're finally here."

"Let's go back to school quickly. The professors are waiting for you."

"The car is outside."

Cui Li, who had been waiting for a long time at Quancheng Station, finally saw Xu Yuan and hurriedly walked up to him to say hello.

Compared to last time, he seemed very anxious.

Without waiting for Xu Yuan to speak, he took the backpack and walked outside.

Xu Yuan was also at a loss for what to do with the other party's sudden action and asked subconsciously.

"Professor Wang and the others haven't verified it yet?"

"Everyone is waiting for you. Professor Wang specifically told us to wait for you to come over so we can verify the results together."

Upon hearing this, Cui Li had to stop what he was doing temporarily, raised his head and explained with envy.

"Whether the result is successful or not, you, the person who provided the latest differential collision method, must be present."

After listening to Cui Li's words, Xu Yuan was somewhat moved by Professor Wang Xiaoyun's approach.

The entire project team has spent so much energy and time and finally brought the project to the last step. They only need to enter a few initial values ​​on the computer to verify whether the result is success or failure. But now they have temporarily stopped this simplest operation.

For the members of the project team, it was absolutely very uncomfortable.

Especially when he just walked over from where he got off the bus, he noticed that Cui Li had more dark circles under his eyes compared to last time.

It seems that everyone has been staying up all night these days to crack the MD5 algorithm as quickly as possible.

Xu Yuan's thoughts stayed here and his feet did not stop at all, as he followed Cui Li towards the car outside.

"This is Professor Ding's car."

The two of them stopped beside a black car, and Cui Li did not forget to explain.

"I was specially asked to drive over to pick you up."

After saying that, he took the initiative to open the back door of the car.

Seeing this, Xu Yuan did not sit in the back car, but opened the passenger door and sat in skillfully.

Cui Li was stunned at first when he saw this scene, and then a bright smile appeared on his face.

He quickly got into the car and started the engine.

The distance from Quancheng Station to Qilu University is not far, and it doesn’t take long to reach the destination by car.

Although this was only his second time here, Xu Yuan had memorized the route layout on campus. Basically, he could still find Wang Xiaoyun's office even without Cui Li leading the way.

Perhaps because Ding Jian and Wang Changxin were waiting anxiously, the office door was left open.

Xu Yuan and Cui Li didn't knock on the door and walked in directly.

"Professor Wang."

"Junior Xu Yuan is here."

Without Cui Li's reminder, the three professors had already noticed Xu Yuan. They stood up from their chairs and greeted him enthusiastically.

"Did everything go smoothly on the journey?"

"Thank you Professor Wang for your concern. Everything went smoothly." Xu Yuan nodded and answered Wang Xiaoyun's question.

Ding Jian next to him was a little more impatient and brought the matter back to the point as soon as he opened his mouth.

"Now that Xu Yuan is here, can we start the verification?"

"I can't wait either." Wang Changxin agreed.

As a member of the project team, Xu Yuan naturally understood everyone's urgent desire to verify the results.

After all, even if you fail, you still need to know where the problem lies.

So he continued, "Then let's start the verification. What do you think, Professor Wang?"

"No problem at all."

A smile appeared on Wang Xiaoyun's face at this time. After saying this, he walked towards the turned-on computer next to him. Ding Jian, Wang Changxin and Cui Li behind him naturally hurried over.

No one wants to miss this historic moment in the field of cryptography.

"We have completed all the sufficient conditions to formulate the difference value according to your collision method."

"The attack algorithms written now can attack MD5 at any time."

"However, we still cannot give a definite answer to the final result and whether the collision can be successfully completed."

Wang Xiaoyun stood next to the computer and his serious expression changed. When he talked about these basic situations, his eyes were filled with expectation but also a bit of uneasiness.

The same is true for Professors Ding Jian and Wang Changxin next to them.

After switching to the new differential collision method, they worked hard to crack it for such a long time.

Naturally, I hope for a good result. But when I think about the difficulty of cracking the MD5 password and the confidence of the Standards and Technology Bureau, I can't help but feel a little uneasy.

However, Xu Yuan's expression remained calm the whole time.

He already knew that the progress bar on the panel had reached 5%, which meant that the MD had been cracked successfully, so the result of this verification could only have one answer.

But it is worth mentioning that under everyone's expectant gaze, Wang Xiaoyun did not enter the initial value for verification.

Instead, he turned his gaze to Xu Yuan again: "You should verify it."

Hearing this, Xu Yuan immediately understood what Wang Xiaoyun meant. It was simply because he had developed a collision method that could achieve quick cracking.

Ding Jian and his colleagues had no objections to this and thought it was a matter of course.

They all knew that without Xu Yuan's new collision method, there would be no today.

Maybe they are still going further and further down the wrong path.

What a waste of time.

At this moment, Xu Yuan would not be pretentious. The most important thing was to satisfy everyone's wishes.

So without any hesitation, he stood in Wang Xiaoyun's position and started typing quickly on the keyboard with his hands.

The entire MD5 cracking process consists of more than sixty steps. Xu Yuan always cooperated with Wang Xiaoyun and others to crack the system, so he was naturally very familiar with the operation process.

After entering the initial value into the program, follow the steps and you will quickly get the final result.

Almost at the moment he pressed the final button, everyone subconsciously put their heads close to the screen, wanting to see the verification results first.

"Success."

“We achieved a collision.”

"MD5 passwords have vulnerabilities."

As Ding Jian was the first to shout out in surprise, excited cheers suddenly rang out in the office.

Happy to verify the results.

As the only doctoral student present, Cui Li was stunned and couldn't believe it.

Before he joined Wang Xiaoyun's team, he had a deep filter on MD5 passwords.

The code designed by Turing Award winner Rivest was praised by the Institute of Standards and Technology as being impossible to crack in a million years, and it has stymied a large number of international cryptography experts. Therefore, when Professor Wang Xiaoyun formed a team to crack it, no one believed that they could succeed.

But now, by using only the collision method developed by Xu Yuan, such an achievement has been achieved in just half a year.

You should know that when you decide to use a new collision method, all previous progress will be overturned and started again.

It's no different than starting from scratch.

"Is this cracked?"

He murmured these words to himself, forcing himself to accept the facts before him as quickly as possible.

At this time, Wang Changxin quickly came to his senses, and after calming down a little, he continued to praise generously.

“It’s unbelievable.”

"Xu Yuan."

"You are definitely the most gifted cryptographer I have ever met."

"It is a blessing for our entire team that Xiaoyun found you to help crack MD5."

At this moment, Wang Xiaoyun finally showed a happy smile on her face and continued speaking after Wang Changxin's words.

"At first, I just valued Xu Yuan's talent in mathematics, and wanted to use this opportunity to let him learn hash functions, so that we can train more experts in the field of cryptography for the country in the future."

"I didn't expect that you, Xu Yuan, would actually help us crack MD5. I'm really glad that I made the decision."

After saying that, he turned his gaze to Xu Yuan with a serious expression and announced something new on the spot.

"So the first author of this paper belongs to Xu Yuan, who will attend the International Cryptography Conference in August this year."

Wang Changxin and Ding Jian had obviously known about this for a long time. Upon hearing this, they all smiled and had no objections.

"I agree."

"this is necessary."

Xu Yuan was quite surprised to hear this, and quickly said, "Isn't this inappropriate, Professor Wang?"

Anyway, he was the last one to join the project team, and it is rare for him to directly become the first author.

But as he finished speaking, before Wang Xiaoyun could express her opinion, Ding Jian's voice came to her ear.

"Whatever is appropriate or not, what belongs to you is yours."

"This time we are cooperating with your Qinghua Mathematics Department. If you hadn't developed a new collision method, it would have been impossible to crack MD5 so quickly. If you weren't the first author, Qinghua wouldn't agree." Wang Changxin added in a joking tone.

"okay."

"Let's not talk about this yet."

After listening to the conversation between several people, Wang Xiaoyun directly changed the subject.

"Just let us write the paper, and all you have to do is arrange your time to attend the conference on time."

Wang Xiaoyun had said this, and it would be hypocritical to refuse further.

The next second Xu Yuan had no choice but to nod and agree.

Thinking about the fact that my first paper was published in a top journal in the field of mathematics, and now I have another paper published in a top academic conference on cryptography, it would be unreasonable if I publish papers below this level in the future.

In this way, Wang Xiaoyun was the corresponding author and Xu Yuan was the first author of this paper on MD5 password cracking.

Professors Wang Changxin and Ding Jian are the second authors, so Cui Li's name is naturally ranked last.

However, for him, being able to leave his name on such a project is already a huge opportunity.

After the result was successfully verified, Xu Yuan did not stay for too long. He returned to school the next day to prepare for the cryptography conference two months later.

……

(End of this chapter)