Question
What is a collision in a hash function? (2 points)
Ask by Martinez Olson. in the United States
Mar 19,2025
Upstudy AI Solution
Tutor-Verified Answer
Answer
A collision in a hash function happens when two different inputs result in the same output.
Solution
A collision in a hash function occurs when two different inputs produce the same output. This is a critical concept in cryptography and data integrity, as it can undermine the effectiveness of the hash function.
From the options provided, the correct statement that defines a collision is:
- 2 inputs map to the same output.
This means that despite having a large number of possible inputs, the hash function produces a limited number of outputs, leading to the situation where two distinct inputs yield the same hash value.
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Simplify this solution Mind Expander
A collision in a hash function occurs when two distinct inputs produce the same output. This is a crucial concept in cryptography and data integrity, as it can undermine the effectiveness of the hash function, leading to potential breaches in security. It’s important to design hash functions that minimize collisions to ensure unique representations of data.
Interestingly, collisions can happen even with well-designed hash functions due to the pigeonhole principle, which states that if you have more “pigeons” (inputs) than “holes” (outputs), at least two pigeons must go into the same hole. Hash functions often take an input of arbitrary length and produce a fixed-length hash, meaning that as more data points are hashed, the risk of collisions increases!
