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DATA INTEGRITY HashCalc

August 2009

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Lab Overview
Objective
At the end of this lab students will be able to create a MD5 message digest, or Fingerprint
of a data file.
Information for Laboratory
A. Students will use HashCalc
B. Students will utilize Windows notepad text editor

Instructor Preparation
Before class, the instructor or a lab assistant will ensure that students have access to
windows notepad. HashCalc should be available on each student computer.

Estimated Completion Time

60 Minutes

MD5 Checksum
MD5 was developed by Professor Ronald L. Rivest of MIT, the R in RSA security.
The MD5 algorithm takes as input a message of arbitrary length and produces as output a
128-bit "fingerprint" or "message digest" of the input. It is said that it is computationally
infeasible to produce two messages having the same message digest, or to produce any
message having a given pre-specified target message digest. The MD5 algorithm is intended
for digital signature applications, where a large file must be "compressed" in a secure
manner before being encrypted with a private (secret) key under a public-key cryptosystem
such as RSA. In essence, MD5 is a way to verify data integrity, and is much more reliable
than standard checksum and many other commonly used methods.

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Step 1: Create a test file

Open windows notepad, Click START, All Programs, Accessories, Notepad. Type 4-5 lines of
text and save the file as TEST.txt. Your file should look something like this.

Step 2: Calculating the Hash value

Open HashCalc. Data Format equals File. Click to browse for the file you created. Ensure
that MD5 and SHA1 are checked.

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Step 3: Change the Test file

Make a change to your test file and save the file and calculate the hash values again. Did the
value change?

Write-Up and Analysis

Include the two screenshots from the hashes calculated from the original text file, and
those calculated after the file was revised.
1) What is the difference between Hash/Checksum and HMAC?
2) Go to www.wireshark.org. Download the latest version of the software. Scroll down the
web page to the Verify Downloads section and click on the signature files link. Verify
that your downloaded files hash matches those in the signature file. Include these
screenshots in your write-up
3) Find another program that calculates Hash values and compare it to the HashCalc
program. Which do you prefer and why?

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To Learn More
Read RFC 1321 ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc1321.txt

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