About Checksums
Maven Resolver uses checksums to verify the integrity of downloaded artifacts and metadata. Checksums are usually laid out in repositories next to the file in question, with file extension telling the checksum algorithm that produced the given checksum file content. Currently, most Maven repositories contain SHA-1 and MD5 checksums by default (they are produced by Resolver by default).
Historically, Maven Resolver used java.security.MessageDigest to implement checksums. So to say, secure one-way
hashes provided by Java Cryptography Architecture were (mis)used to implement checksums for transport integrity
validation. There is no misunderstanding here, secure hashes MAY be used as checksums, as there is quite some
overlap between checksums and hashes in general. But this simplicity comes at a price: cryptographically safe
algorithms require way more CPU cycles to calculate checksum, while all their purpose is just
integrity validation, nothing more. There is no security, trust or whatever else implied or expected from
them.
If you are interested in trust in your artifacts, it is signatures (for example GPG Signatures) that you should look for.
Hence, the usual argument that “XXX algorithm is unsafe, deprecated, not secure anymore” does not stand in use case of Maven Resolver: there is nothing secure being involved with checksums. Moreover, this is true not only for SHA-1 algorithm, but even for its “elder brother” MD5. Both algorithms are still widely used today as “transport integrity validation” or “error detection” (aka “bit-rot detection”).
Checksum Algorithms SPI
From a technical perspective, the above written facts infer following consequences: as checksum algorithms are exposed to the user, so one can set them via configuration, users are not prevented to ask for SHA-256 or even SHA-512, even if these algorithms are not part of standard Maven process. Moreover, nothing prevent users (integrating Maven Resolver) registering with Java an alternate Java Cryptography Provider and use even broader (or exotic) set of message digests for checksums. While this is not wrong or even mistake in any case, we do consider this as wrong use case. The notion of transport validation and secure hashes are being constantly mixed up due historical reasons explained above.
Hence, Maven Resolver team decided to make supported set of checksums more controlled. Instead of directly exposing
MessageDigest algorithms, we introduced an SPI around checksums. This not only prevents wrong use cases (not
exposing all supported algorithms of MessageDigest to users), but also makes possible to introduce real checksum
algorithms. Finally, the set of supported checksum algorithms remains extensible: if some required algorithm is
not provided by Resolver, it can be easily added by creating a factory component for it.
We are aware that users started using “better SHA” algorithms, and we do not want to break them. Nothing for them changes (configuration and everything basically remains the same). But, we do want to prevent any possible further proliferation of non-standard checksums.
Implemented Checksum Algorithms
Resolver out of the box provides the following checksum algorithms (important: algorithm names are case sensitive):
- MD5
- SHA-1
- SHA-256
- SHA-512
The algorithms above are provided by Resolver, by default. Still, using the SPI, anyone can extend Resolver with new types of Checksum Algorithms.
To see how and when checksums are used in Resolver, continue on Expected Checksums page.
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