Which hashing method is used to password protect Blackberry devices?

• A. AES
• B. RC5
• C. MD5
• D. SHA-1

Answer: (D)

Password protection on devices uses a hash of the entered password rather than storing it in plaintext. This hash is stored and used to verify your login by hashing the input again and comparing the results, so the actual password isn’t exposed. On BlackBerry devices, the hashing method used for this purpose is SHA-1, which produces a 160-bit digest used to verify the password and derive protection keys. Encryption algorithms like AES or RC5 are about encrypting data, not hashing for login verification, so they aren’t used to hash the password here. MD5 is another hash function, but SHA-1 was the hashing choice associated with BlackBerry password protection.