Hash method

Hash method

07 December 2018
2450
Tutorial Linux Security

MD5

To use the MD5 function we need to use the following command.

md5sum [options] file

Options for the command:

-c It checks that the generated key by the command match with that file.

-b I tell the command that the file I'm going to open is binary, in other words, all the ASCII codes from 0 to 255.

-t I tell the command that the file I'm going to open is text, in other words, only printable characters.


Creating the Hash

In this example, we're going to pass the md5sum manual to a txt file that we're going to name it md5sum.txt, the generated key we're going to pass it to a file called md5sum.md5

man md5sum > md5sum.txt
md5sum -t md5sum.txt > md5sum.md5

 

Checking the Hash

To check if the previously generated key is correct, we're going to use

md5sum -c md5sum.md5

 

Calculating the key of multiple files

We're going to pass a folder, in this case /bin

md5sum -b /bin > bin.md5
md5sum -c bin.md5

As we can see, it checks all the files inside the /bin folder.

 

Practical cases

The file has been modified

Suppose the file has been modified

nano md5sum.txt
md5sum -c md5sum.md5

As we can see, an error was generated indicating that the key doesn't correspond to the file.

WARNING: 1 computed checksum did NOT match

 

The key has been modified

We modified the key of the example file.

nano md5sum.md5
md5sum -c md5sum.md5

As we can see, an error was generated indicating that the key doesn't correspond to the file.

WARNING: 1 computed checksum did NOT match

 

The file doesn't exist

We deleted the example file.

rm md5sum.txt
md5sum -c md5sum.md5

As we can see, an error was generated indicating that the file wasn't found.

WARNING: 1 listen file could not be read

 

The file is in another place

We moved the file to another place and we checked the key.

mv md5sum.txt md5sum.txt.bak
md5sum -c md5sum.md5

As we can see, an error was generated indicating that the file wasn't found.

WARNING: 1 listen file could not be read

 

 

SHA

To use the SHA function we need to use the following command.

shasum [options] files

Options for the command:

-a Algorithm: 1, 224, 256, 384, 512

-c It checks that the generated key by the command match with that file.

-b I tell the command that the file I'm going to open is binary, in other words, all the ASCII codes from 0 to 255.

-t I tell the command that the file I'm going to open is text, in other words, only printable characters.

 

Creating the Hash

In this example, we're going to pass the shasum manual to a txt file that we're going to name it shasum.txt, the generated key we're going to pass it to a file called shasum.sha256

man shasum > shasum.txt
shasum -a 256 -b shasum.txt > shasum.sha256

 

Checking the Hash

To check if the previously generated key is correct, we're going to use

shasum -c shasum.sha256

 

Calculating the key of multiple files

We're going to pass a folder, in this case /bin

shasum -b /bin > bin.sha256
shasum -c bin.sha256

As we can see, it checks all the files inside the /bin folder.

 

Practical cases

The file has been modified

Suppose the file has been modified

nano shasum.txt
shasum -c shasum.sha256

As we can see, an error was generated indicating that the key doesn't correspond to the file.

 

WARNING: 1 computed checksum did NOT match

 

The key has been modified

We modified the key of the example file.

nano shasum.sha256
shasum -c shasum.sha256

As we can see, an error was generated indicating that the key doesn't correspond to the file.

 

WARNING: 1 computed checksum did NOT match

 

The file doesn't exist

We deleted the example file.

rm shasum.txt
shasum -c shasum.sha256

As we can see, an error was generated indicating that the file wasn't found.

 

WARNING: 1 listen file could not be read

 

The file is in another place

We moved the file to another place and we checked the key.

mv shasum.txt shasum.txt.bak
shasum -c shasum.sha256

As we can see, an error was generated indicating that the file wasn't found.

 

WARNING: 1 listen file could not be read

 

 

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