Checksum and hashing operations resilient to malicious input data

A computer system for providing checksum and hashing operations resilient to malicious input data, the system comprising:

• a processor and memory configured to execute software instructions embodied within the following components;
• an input receiving component that receives input data for which to determine a checksum value;
• a seeding component that receives or determines a seed value to use to randomize the checksum values produced by any particular instance of the system;
• a checksum component that computes a checksum value derived from the received input data and determined seed value using a Marvin32 checksum function;
• a data output component that provides the computed checksum value as output data to other components of the system or external components;
• and
• a hash table component that manages a hash table that uses the checksum value as a hash key.

A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions for controlling a computer system to insert data into a hash table using a resilient hash function, wherein the instructions, upon execution, cause a processor to perform actions comprising:

• selecting a seed value that will cause an output checksum to vary from any previous operation using a different seed;
• providing the selected seed value to a checksum function that determines a checksum given an input seed and input data;
• receiving data to be inserted into a hash table;
• determining a hash key by invoking the checksum function to calculate a hash key value that is derived from the selected seed value and received data;
• inserting the received data into the hash table by using the hash key calculated by the checksum function;
• and
• wherein the hash table uses a typical hashing function until a threshold number of collisions are detected, and then switches to using the checksum function.