{"id":510,"date":"2026-04-17T14:28:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T13:28:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7zeros.com\/?page_id=510"},"modified":"2026-04-17T15:25:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T14:25:44","slug":"checksum-verification","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/7zeros.com\/?page_id=510","title":{"rendered":"Checksum Verification"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A <strong>SHA-256<\/strong> checksum (also known as a digest) is generally a fixed-length fingerprint for a file, generated by running the file through a mathematical SHA-256 hash function, in order to detect changes or corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The output is 256 bits, with 1 hexadecimal character representing 4 bits, hence the string is displayed as 64 characters long in hex form. Even if there is the smallest change in the file contents, the outputted digest will also be different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code><strong>user@ubuntu:~$ sha256sum software.zip<\/strong>\n7bd0d54500e748ef8f2a320107ad26de7cb7b46c17833ba79f76708a326cdf91<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>To validate the checksum provided by the publisher of a downloaded software for example, the following methods can be used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Windows Powershell<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code><strong>PS C:\\> Get-FileHash \"C:\\Downloads\\software.zip\" -Algorithm SHA256<\/strong>\n\nAlgorithm                                                                          \n---------                                                                          \nSHA256\n\nHash\n----          7BD0D54500E748EF8F2A320107AD26DE7CB7B46C17833BA79F7670\n8A326CDF91<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>Rather than trying to validate every character by eye or hand, use the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code><strong>PS C:\\> $publisherHash = \"7bd0d54500e748ef8f2a320107ad26de7cb7b46c17833ba79f76708a326cdf91\"<\/strong>\n\n<strong>PS C:\\> $myHash = (Get-FileHash \"C:\\Downloads\\software.zip\" -Algorithm SHA256).Hash<\/strong>\n\n<strong>PS C:\\> $myHash<\/strong>\n7BD0D54500E748EF8F2A320107AD26DE7CB7B46C17833BA79F76708A326CDF91\n\n<strong>PS C:\\> $myHash -eq $publisherHash<\/strong>\nTrue<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>or<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>False<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ubuntu Linux<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Compare:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code><strong>user@ubuntu:~$<\/strong> <strong>echo \"7bd0d54500e748ef8f2a320107ad26de7cb7b46c17833ba79f76708a326cdf91 software.zip\" | sha256sum -c<\/strong>\nsoftware.zip: OK<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>or<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>software.zip: FAILED\nsha256sum: WARNING: 1 computed checksum did NOT match<\/code><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A SHA-256 checksum (also known as a digest) is generally a fixed-length fingerprint for a file, generated by running the file through a mathematical SHA-256 hash function, in order to detect changes or corruption. The output is 256 bits, with 1 hexadecimal character representing 4 bits, hence the string is displayed as 64 characters long [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-510","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7zeros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7zeros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7zeros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7zeros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7zeros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=510"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/7zeros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":519,"href":"https:\/\/7zeros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/510\/revisions\/519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7zeros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}