fastest MD5 Implementation in JavaScript

Question

There are many MD5 JavaScript implementations out there. Does anybody know which one is the most advanced, most bugfixed and fastest?

I need it for this tool.

user_1892607 · Answer

My favorite md5

This one is 42 lines long, fits in 120 characters horizontally, and looks good. Is it fast? Well - it's fast enough and it's approximately the same as all other JS implementations. But it's just oddly satisfying to look at all those nicely aligned columns. Don't deny.

//  A formatted version of a popular md5 implementation.
//  Original copyright (c) Paul Johnston & Greg Holt.
//  The function itself is now 42 lines long.

function md5(inputString) {
    var hc="0123456789abcdef";
    function rh(n) {var j,s="";for(j=0;j<=3;j++) s+=hc.charAt((n>>(j*8+4))&0x0F)+hc.charAt((n>>(j*8))&0x0F);return s;}
    function ad(x,y) {var l=(x&0xFFFF)+(y&0xFFFF);var m=(x>>16)+(y>>16)+(l>>16);return (m<<16)|(l&0xFFFF);}
    function rl(n,c)            {return (n<>>(32-c));}
    function cm(q,a,b,x,s,t)    {return ad(rl(ad(ad(a,q),ad(x,t)),s),b);}
    function ff(a,b,c,d,x,s,t)  {return cm((b&c)|((~b)&d),a,b,x,s,t);}
    function gg(a,b,c,d,x,s,t)  {return cm((b&d)|(c&(~d)),a,b,x,s,t);}
    function hh(a,b,c,d,x,s,t)  {return cm(b^c^d,a,b,x,s,t);}
    function ii(a,b,c,d,x,s,t)  {return cm(c^(b|(~d)),a,b,x,s,t);}
    function sb(x) {
        var i;var nblk=((x.length+8)>>6)+1;var blks=new Array(nblk*16);for(i=0;i>2]|=x.charCodeAt(i)<<((i%4)*8);
        blks[i>>2]|=0x80<<((i%4)*8);blks[nblk*16-2]=x.length*8;return blks;
    }
    var i,x=sb(inputString),a=1732584193,b=-271733879,c=-1732584194,d=271733878,olda,oldb,oldc,oldd;
    for(i=0;i


Another absolutely irrelevant fact: it's 4000 bytes long. It may seem pointless but it feels good to just know. You look at it and you know. You belong to the secret club of Those Who Just Know. Life will never be the same. Trust me.
Also, thank you Paul Johnston and Greg Holt.

And Douglas Adams, for all the fish.
Stackblitz demo

user_207661 · Answer

While selecting library it's also important to see if it supports modern frameworks such as Bower, passes jslint, supports plugin model for JQuery or module systems such as AMD/RequireJS in addition to being in active development and have more than 1 contributors. There are couple of options that satisfies some or all of these additional criteria:

CryptoJS: This is perhaps the most expansive library where each algorithm can be used separately without adding fat in to your JS code. Plus it as encoder/decoders for UTF8, UTF16 and Base64. I maintain github repository that is registered as Bower package plus instructions on how to use it with RequireJS.
Spark MD5: This is based on JKM code that other answer mentions which is also the faster implementation. However in addition, Spark implementation adds AMD support, passes jslint plus has incremental mode. It doesn't have Base64 o/p but it does have raw o/p (i.e. array of 32-bit int insead of string).
JQuery MD5 plugin: Very simple down to earth but doesn't seem to have raw mode.
JavaScript-MD5: Not as fancy or fast as Spark but simpler.

Example from CryptoJS:

//just include md5.js from the CryptoJS rollups folder
var hash = CryptoJS.MD5("Message");
console.log(hash.toString());

There is a performance comparison between above libraries at http://jsperf.com/md5-shootout/7. On my machine current tests (which are admittedly old) shows that if you are looking for speed Spark MD5 is your best bet (and so is plain JKM code). However if you looking for more comprehensive library then CryptoJS is your best bet although it is 79% slower than Spark MD5. However I would imagine CryptoJS would eventually achieve same speed as it is bit more active project.

user_862862 · Answer

Node.js has built-in support

const crypto = require('crypto')
crypto.createHash('md5').update('hello world').digest('hex')

Code snippet above computes MD5 hex string for string hello world

The advantage of this solution is you don't need to install additional library.

I think built in solution should be the fastest. If not, we should create issue/PR for the Node.js project.

user_6557569 · Answer

As of 2020 the fastest MD5 implementation is probably written in WASM (Web Assembly).

hash-wasm is a library that implements MD5 hash in WASM.

You can find the benchmarks here.

You can either install it with npm:

npm i hash-wasm

or just add a script tag

then use the hashwasm global variable.

Example:

async function run() {
  console.log('MD5:', await hashwasm.md5('The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog'));
}

run();

outputs

MD5: 9e107d9d372bb6826bd81d3542a419d6

user_6862694 · Answer

Maybe this package was useful
https://www.npmjs.com/package/pure-md5

console.time('latin');
const latin = md5('hello');
console.timeEnd('latin');

console.log('Привет: ', md5('Привет'));
console.log('嘿: ', md5('嘿'));

user_4082344 · Answer

The winner for the MD5 benchmark is Javascript-MD5

Test it on https://jsben.ch/imzpt or see on jsfiddle.net/w731ed58/

Admin · Answer

You could also check my md5 implementation. It should be approx. the same as the other posted above. Unfortunately, the performance is limited by the inner loop which is impossible to optimize more.

fastest MD5 Implementation in JavaScript

19 Answers

My favorite md5

Node.js has built-in support