[rabbitmq-discuss] AMQP, RabbitMQ and message integrity

Thu Mar 21 17:36:15 GMT 2013

Hi James,

On 21/03/13 17:03, James Gardner wrote:

> Perhaps that question can largely be rephrased as what guarantees does 
> *AMQP* make about message integrity, although how messages are stored 
> and transported within RabbitMQ would surely be a part of it too.

Yes, a hash in a header will work. The broker does not perform any
integrity test on messages (though it will notice corruption that causes
the length to change).

In theory it is possible for highly specific failure modes to cause
corruption of messages. In practice there are network checksums and
parity checks in hardware for protection. The broker is far more likely
to crash than deliver corrupt data unwittingly, but the hash you suggest
would be another line of defence against this remote possibility.

-Emile