An MD5 hash is created by taking a string of any length and encoding it into a 128-bit fingerprint. Encoding the same string using the MD5 algorithm will always give the same 128-bit hash output. MD5 hashes are commonly used with smaller character strings when storing passwords, credit card numbers or other sensitive data in databases such as the popular MySQL. This tool allows you to quickly and easily encode an MD5 hash from a simple 256 character string.
MD5 hashes are also used to ensure file integrity. Since the MD5 hash algorithm always produces the same result for the same given input, users can compare a hash of the source file with a newly created hash of the destination file to verify that it is intact and unmodified.
An MD5 hash is NOT encryption. It is simply a fingerprint of the given entry. However, this is a one-way transaction and, as such, it is almost impossible to reverse engineer an MD5 hash to recover the original string.