Checksum Validator

Checksum Validator

Free!

Checksum Validator is a simple to use progam that allows you to calculate and validate checksums (either SHA-1 or MD5 digest methods) for files that you have downloaded (or will upload). Checksum Validator is for the Mac OS X and it is freeware!

More sites are including either MD5 or SHA-1 checksums for their files. With this utility, you can verify that the file you download matches theirs; ensuring that there was not corruption of the data or tampering by anyone else. Checksum Validator can produce and validate either type of checksum.

Of the two checksums MD5 is more common and it will be 32 characters long (written in hexadecimal notation, so that is 16 bytes or 128 bits), but SHA-1 is 40 characters long (20 bytes, 160 bits) and is considered a little more secure than MD5.

For more information on checksums and the MD5 and SHA-1 digests head over to Wikipedia, they have many good articles explaining the details on message digests or the "official" term of, cryptographic hash functions, and articles on the MD5 and SHA hash functions.

It is extremely easy to create and validate checksums with Checksum Validator:

• To create a checksum just drag any file onto the Checksum Validator application icon or into its Drag Well window. You can also use the typical MacOS "Open…" item from the "File" menu or use - o.
• To validate a checksum, merely go to your browser and highlight and copy the checksum from the website where you downloaded the file and then paste that into the Checksum Validator window that is showing the calculated checksum of your copy of the file. Hit return or enter on your keyboard and Checksum Validator compares and shows the results.

Whenever a file is opened in Checksum Validator the program immediately begins to calculate the checksum. The digest it uses is the default one you set in Checksum Validator's preferences. But you can always click the other digest in the individual windows to have Checksum Validator calculate a checksum with the other digest.

• Download Checksum Validator for free!