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Re:One of the Most Alarming Internet Proposals I've Seen by zachrose on Sunday February 23, 2014 @06:38PM (#7288246)
I believe there's already a standard HTTP header for this: Content-MD5.

Browsers definitely don't cache across origins by this though.

If they did, would it be possible to create a malicious JavaScript file with the same MD5 as jQuery?

Re:One of the Most Alarming Internet Proposals I've Seen by gojomo on Sunday February 23, 2014 @06:53PM (#7288299)
It would need to be done via the pointer-to-content (URL/URI), and an independently-calculated secure-hash, not just a header. (The 'ni' proposal might serve this role.[1])

You definitely wouldn't use MD5, as experts have been recommending against its use for content-security since about 1996.[2] (A practical full chosen-preimage attack hasn't yet been developed, but still, you'd design for security for the next few decades, which would mean a SHA256 or better.) The choice of a good hash would mean no one could practically create an alternate file with the same hash.

[1] http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-farrell-decade-ni-10

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD5#cite_note-30

Re:One of the Most Alarming Internet Proposals I've Seen by Danieru on Sunday February 23, 2014 @07:01PM (#7288321)
Yes it would be possible because MD5 has been broken: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD5#Collision_vulnerabilities

Any file can be modified to result in a hash collision with a specific MD5. This makes is unsuitable for its stated purpose as a cryptographic hash.

The solution would be to use a newer and stronger hash like Keccak.

A solution similar to what you are thinking of is already used by Bittorrent's Distributed Hash Table to identify files.

Re:One of the Most Alarming Internet Proposals I've Seen by gojomo on Sunday February 23, 2014 @08:19PM (#7288582)
To be precise, while MD5 has been 'broken' in the sense of not meeting its design goals for a long time, and there are now a number of scenarios where attackers can create pairs of files with the same MD5, it is not yet practically possible to create a collision for any arbitrary file (such as jquery.js) on demand. That would be the total 'preimage vulnerability' as mentioned at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD5#Preimage_vulnerability

MD5 should absolutely not be used for this content-identification purpose or any other new code... and wise designers haven't been using it for 10+ years. I'm just mentioning this to be precise about the current state of its proven weaknesses.