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Not quite. A (cryptographic) hash is not the encrypted message but rather the message's 'fingerprint'. For example:
The SHA-1 hash of "SheepShagger" is 0x03009B1F75C4D6FA9DA6C9A83C615D09DE99CEA2. If the message is altered in any way the hash will be completely different, so "Sheep-Shagger" will produce 0xCA76C00D3355B8B56AED7EF575FC827E20814EDB.
Because hashing algorithms are the building blocks of cryptographic systems, finding any weakness is significant as it undermines the systems that rely on them, but it doesn't necessarily make them unsafe. In this case it probably means that new crypto systems will not use SHA-1 anymore.
A great (and free!) book about all things crypto is Handbook of Applied Cryptography available at h++p://www.cacr.math.uwaterloo.ca/hac/
Last edited by SheepShagger; 02-17-2005 at 05:07.
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