Can someone explain the Flickr API and how security is established? Why not use AES instead of md5?

Question

Hi,

Just trying to understand Flickr's API setup, and how secure it really is.

Flickr API

Why do a MD5 hash and not something like AES?

Answer 1

The hash is strictly a signature, so a one-way hash like MD5 is good enough for their usage. If there's a collision (unlikely but possible) they'll just re-hash.

No need to make it more complicated than it has to be.