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Why are md5, sha1 and other hash indicators sometimes loaded?

I have seen this everywhere:

Download here! SHA1 = 8e1ed2ce9e7e473d38a9dc7824a384a9ac34d7d0

What does it mean? How a hash comes into play in terms of loading and ... What benefit can I make of this? Is this an obsolete element in which you had to check some checksum after you downloaded the whole file?

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7 answers

This is a safety measure. This allows you to verify that the file you uploaded is the one that the author sent to the site. Please note that using hashes from the same website from which you receive files is not particularly safe. Often a good place to get them is with a mailing list ad, in which the signed PGP address contains a link to the file and the hash.

Since this answer was rated so highly compared to others for some reason, I am editing it to add another main reason, mentioned first by other authors below, which is to check the integrity of the file after it has been transmitted over the network.

So:

  • Security - make sure that the file you uploaded was the one published by the author.
  • Integrity - make sure that the file was not corrupted during transmission over the network.
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When downloading large files, it is often useful to perform a checksum to ensure that the download was successful and not distorted during transport. There are many free applications that you can use to generate a checksum to verify your download. This is for me an interesting update of the procedures that popular mp3 and warez sites used for use on the day the files were distributed.

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SHA1 and MD5 hashes are used to verify the integrity of the files you uploaded. They are not necessarily an inherited technology and can be used by tools such as openssl to check if your file has been damaged / modified from its original.

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To make sure that you downloaded the file correctly. If you have a hash uploaded a file and it matches the hash on the page, all is well.

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A cryptographic hash (such as SH1 or MD5) allows you to verify that the file you downloaded is correct and has not been modified.

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To agree with what everyone says here, I use HashTab when I need to generate / compare MD5 and SHA1 hashes on Windows. It adds a new tab to the file properties window and calculates the hashes.

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If there is (MD5, SHA-1), one input corresponds to only one output, and then, if you download the file and calculate the hash, it should get the same result. If the result is different, the file is damaged.

If (hash(file) == "Hash in page") validFile = true; else validFile = false;
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