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Message Digest 5 (MD5)
Message Digest 5 (MD5) is a hash algorithm used to authenticate packet data. Cisco routers and the PIX Firewall use the MD5 hashed message authentication code (HMAC) variant that provides an additional level of hashing. A hash is a one-way encryption algorithm that takes an input message of arbitrary length and produces a fixed-length output message. IKE, AH, and ESP can use MD5 for authentication.