---
title: "Deprecation: #94684 - GeneralUtility::shortMD5()"
manual: "TYPO3 Core Changelog"
version: "main"
permalink: "https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/changelog:deprecation-94684"
source: "Changelog/11.4/Deprecation-94684-GeneralUtilityShortMD5.rst"
modified: "2026-09-15T10:46:36+00:00"
---

# Deprecation: #94684 - GeneralUtility::shortMD5()

See [forge#94684](https://forge.typo3.org/issues/94684)

## Description

`\TYPO3\CMS\Core\Utility\GeneralUtility\GeneralUtility::shortMD5()` is a
shorthand method to create an MD5 string trimmed to a defined length, by default
10 characters.

Such shortened checksums are highly susceptible to collisions, thus this method
has been marked as deprecated.

## Impact

Calling `\TYPO3\CMS\Core\Utility\GeneralUtility::shortMD5()` will trigger a
PHP `E_USER_DEPRECATED` error.

## Affected Installations

Any extension using `\TYPO3\CMS\Core\Utility\GeneralUtility::shortMD5()` is
affected. The extension scanner will find usages of that method.

## Migration

Use the native `md5()` function to create checksums. In conjunction with
`substr()` the old behavior can be recovered: `substr(md5($string), 0, 10)`.

If checksums are stored in the database, adapt the respective
`ext_tables.sql` file to use `VARCHAR(32)` for the affected database
fields.