CyberNotes: Calculating MD5, SHA-1, And CRC Hash Values
Time Saving Tuesday
All over the Internet you see things that say MD5, SHA-1, or even CRC. All of that jibber-jabber is in reference to hash values which verify the integrity of a download. Basically, if I wanted to send you a file I would calculate one of those values, send you the file, and then you would calculate the value for the same type of hash that I used. If it matches the value that I calculated then the odds are pretty good that there wasn’t a problem with the file transfer.
How do you go about calculating these values? I have no idea why Windows doesn’t have some sort of right-click menu to do this because they could just hide it like they do with the “Command Prompt Here” for Vista. Luckily there is plenty of software that will do the grunt work for us and the few that I tested even work in Vista (despite them being several years old). Here is a rundown of the solutions I found:
digestIT (Freeware Download)
This is my favorite program for calculating and comparing hash values. It works with MD5 and SHA-1 hashes by providing a simple-to-use right-click menu for any file(s) in Windows. The reason this is my favorite is because it will not only calculate the value but you can also input a hash value and see if it matches the file’s value. That way you don’t have to sit there comparing two long strings of letters and numbers. Here is a screenshot of what digestIT looks like for the whole comparison process:
The verification feature is pretty important to me because that is primarily what I need to do. This just makes the whole process a little easier and means I have to think less…which is always a good thing. 
HashOnClick (Freeware Download)
This one is pretty similar to the one above except that it doesn’t have the verification option. It will only generate the hash value for you and then you’ll have to manually compare it. HashOnClick works with MD5 and SHA-1 but also does CRC hash values. Here is a screenshot of the program being used:
MD5 Column Display (Freeware Download)
This one only does MD5 hash calculations but it is unique in the way it presents itself. You don’t ever have to make an extra click to see that MD5 value because you can set it up to display a column in Windows Explorer for it. Here is what it looks like:
MD5Sum Utility (Online Calculator)
That is a site that can calculate nearly all of the different has values: haval, MD2, MD4, MD5, ripemd128, ripemd160, SHA, SHA-160, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512, tiger, and whirlpool. So why wouldn’t you use this? The first reason is that you have to upload the file to their site in order for it to calculate the hash value. It is required (for logical reasons) that the PC doing the calculation has the file on the computer…which brings up another point. If you are having to upload the file to them there is no guarantee that there wasn’t an error in that process. Therefore the file that you have on your PC might be completely intact but when you upload it there is an error which results in a miscalculated hash value. Online hash generators are convenient but not something you should completely trust.
Overview
There are all kinds of ways to calculate the hash values but hopefully you’ll find one of those alternatives to work well. There is also a Firefox extension, called MDHashTool, that hasn’t been updated in years that can do the verification of the hash values all from within the browser…but you won’t be able to install the extension in a version of Firefox greater than 1.0.6 without overriding the extension compatibility check. For some reason I thought that Opera had this feature built-into their transfer manager but I looked all over and couldn’t find it. If you have a better/easier alternative for doing this please let me know!
| Update: |
Nogg3r5 pointed out in the comments below that HashTab is also a great solution. It will put the MD5, SHA-1, and CRC comparison features in the properties tab of every file.
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Tags: CyberNotes, Freeware, Software
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This is a little different than the usual post and frankly more to my likings. Hash calculations aren’t for the average users.
The post is simple and straight forward but with enough meat to be meaningful.
Use HashTab its the future…
http://www.beeblebrox.org/hashtab/
it calculates and lets you compare hashes form within a files properties page in windows.
Also, you typo’d
I’m glad you like the post because it was something I thought a lot of people probably ignore even though it is super easy to use.
That might be my favorite one now.
That is why I love our community so much because we all have our own solutions for things and it benefits everyone when we share them!
P.S. THanks for pointing out the typo…don’t know how I missed that one.
a tip create a txt file write some jibber jabber saved it ….hash it and a new password (thats pretty hard to break) but DONT DELETE THAT FILE !!!!!!!!!
Hi, two other options which are open source :
- winMD5Sum
http://www.nullriver.com/index...../winmd5sum
You can…
* browse for files
* drag and drop files on it
* send files to it using the SendTo menu
* pass files as command line paramaters
… and you get the MD5 sum of the files. Downside, it only goes MD5 checksums. But it is simple to use.
- VisualHash
http://www.dominik-reichl.de/o.....ml#vishash
From the website :
“With VisualHash you can compute hashsums of files and texts. VisualHash supports most of the common hashing and one-way algorithms, including Adler-32, Cksum-32, CRC-16, CRC-16-CCITT, CRC-16-XModem, CRC-32, CRC-32-MPEG2, CRC-64, ELF-32, FCS-16, FNV-32, FNV-64, GOST, MD2, MD4, MD5, PJW-32, SDBM-32, SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512, Sum-32, XUM-32 and many more. VisualHash is GPL-licensed…
requires the .NET framework.”
Dev T,
http://ttcsweb.org/osswin-cd/
HashOnClick can verify hash values:
Copy a hash value(s) to the Windows clipboard, e.g. using HOC itself or copying from a web page, then calculate the hash value(s) using HOC. If they are the same then the hash value is shown in blue, if not the same then black. Note you can copy the entire web page, for example, to the clipboard, not just the hash values. If the hash values HOC calculate match anything in the clipboard then they are shown in blue.