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MD5 hash check Windows/Linux

Performing hash checksum on files you download is highly recommended as an extra layer of security, with the transmission of data from one system to another we need to try and verify the source, MD5 is no way perfect but it's a start.

What is Checksums:
Checksums are used to ensure the integrity of a file after it has been transmitted from one storage device to another. This can be across the Internet or simply between two computers on the same network. Either way, if you want to ensure that the transmitted file is exactly the same as the source file, you can use a checksum.

Performing checksum on Windows:
CertUtil is a pre-installed Windows utility that can be used to generate hash checksums:

Start Powershell and enter:

certUtil -hashfile pathToFileToCheck [HashAlgorithm]

HashAlgorithm choices: MD2 MD4 MD5 SHA1 SHA256 SHA384 SHA512

EXAMPLE:

D:\Desktop> certUtil -hashfile fedora_setup.sh md5
md5_check

Once the checksum matches the one from source your good to go, if it does NOT match then you should not trust the file and delete from your system.


Performing checksum on Linux:
md5sum is a pre-installed Linux utility that can be used to generate hash checksums:

Start Terminal and enter:

md5sum pathToFileToCheck

EXAMPLE:

[james@Jadelinux ~]$ md5sum fedora_setup.sh
md5_check_linux

Again once the checksum matches the one from source your good to go, if it does NOT match then you should not trust the file and delete from your system.

Thank you for reading.