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MD5 is a one-way hashing algorithm. If you take plain text and run it through the hashing algorithm, it produces a hash string such as the one in the question. If you take a file and compare it to the known hash that is supposed to have been produced from that file, you can tell if the file has been tampered with. If the hash of the file matches the hash you were provided that is supposed to have come from the file, then the file has not been altered - at least in theory. In reality, researchers have demonstrated that it is possible to create another file that will yield the same hash even though the files are different.

With all that in mind, you should realize that you cannot go backwards from the hash to a unique initial text. There are literally an infinite number of files that can produce the same hash so you don't "decrypt" and MD5 hash.

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14y ago

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