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Generate File Hashes Directly In Firefox

Martin Brinkmann — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:15:52 +0000

Comparing file hashes of files that you have downloaded to your computer with those provided by the provider of said downloads can be a great way of verifying that a file is genuine and that it has not been tampered with by third parties. Security only works if the sources you get the files and hashes from is trustworthy. One example would be if you uploaded a file on a server to download it later to another computer. You’d generate the hash, upload the file and verify that the hash is identical to the one that you have generated before.

MD5 Reborned Hasher is a Firefox add-on that integrates hash generating options directly in the browser’s download window. Having said that, it needs to be noted that users need to keep a history of their downloads in the browser for the add-on to work properly.

The add-on places a small Check Digest link next to each download in the Downloads window of the browser. A click on the link opens a Check File window where hash files can be generated. The add-on supports the generation of MD2, MD5, SHA1, SHA256, SHA384 or SHA512 hashes. Just select the desired hash from the pulldown menu and click the Generate Digest button afterwards.

The generated checksum is then displayed in the same window. All that is left then is to copy the original hash value into the second field. The add-on compares both hashes and will notify you if they are identical or not.

Depending on the result you may either decided to quarantine or delete the file or use it on your system.

MD5 Reborned Hasher is a handy extension for Firefox users who need to verify file downloads regularly. An option to automatically generate hashes for all downloaded files would be handy but is not present in the reviewed version of the add-on.

Firefox users can download and install the extension from the official Mozilla Firefox add-on repository.

Hash Tab Shell Extension

Martin Brinkmann — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 17:28:47 +0000

Many users shy away as soon as they hear the words hash or shell extension because of the connotation that the conversation will turn into a highly technical – and geeky – one. The concept itself however is pretty simple that even a inexperienced computer user should understand it.

A hash is just a string that has been computed with the use of an algorithm. That hash is always the same as long as the file that has been checked is not modified. This leads directly to many uses of hash values. They can be used to check that a file is still the same on one computer, that a file that has been uploaded to a remote computer is the same as the file on the source computer or that a download from an Internet website is not corrupt.

Hash Tab is a Windows shell extension that adds a tab in the File Properties window that is displaying has values of various algorithms like MD5, CRC32 or SHA-512.

One interesting feature of Hash Tab is the ability to compare hashes in the File Properties dialog. It is possible to select a second file on the hard drive and compare it with the first one or to paste a hash into one of the forms and compare the files that way. The second option is obviously thought for comparing files that are not located on the same computer. Helpful after downloading files on the Internet or transferring files to a remote computer.

Hash Tab is only one review that was posted by Demetris at his blog. He lists Fifteen useful shell extensions for Windows with lots of screenshots and information on his website.

Check MD5 Hashes

Clazirus — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 19:29:52 +0000

MD5 (Message-Digest algorithm 5) can be used as a way of checking that a computer file has not been maliciously or accidentally altered. To put it simple, it works like a fingerprint. So, nowadays most of websites includes this information to their software, which looks like this:

Using MD5 checker, we can ensure the integrity of the files. All you need is to copy those published MD5 hashes to clipboard and launch this application. Paste it, and then simply click the browse button to locate the file. The md5 hashes will be compared to the one on the clipboard. The result then will be shown if the file was altered or not.

You could also create hashes for your file.