What Is the Difference between a Preimage Attack and a Collision Attack?
A preimage attack seeks to find the original input that generated a specific, known output hash. The attacker knows the output and wants the input.
A collision attack, conversely, seeks to find two different inputs that produce the same hash output. The specific output value is not pre-determined.
Both attacks target weaknesses in hash function security, but their goals and implications differ significantly for various cryptographic applications.
Glossar
Collision Attack
Vulnerability ⎊ A specific type of cryptographic flaw occurs when two distinct inputs produce the same output from a mathematical function.
Preimage Attack
Exploitation ⎊ A preimage attack, within cryptocurrency and financial derivatives, targets the cryptographic hash functions securing blockchain transactions and digital signatures.
Hash Function
Function ⎊ A hash function is a mathematical algorithm that takes an input of arbitrary size and produces a fixed-size output, known as a hash value or digest.
Collision Resistance
Cryptographic Security ⎊ Collision resistance in hashing algorithms, central to cryptocurrency, dictates the computational infeasibility of finding two distinct inputs that produce an identical output hash.