Using Windows Powershell for Cryptographic Verification

Using Windows Powershell for Cryptographic Verification

 

Windows operating system users have the ability to perform cryptographic verification using the Windows platform PowerShell, which is used to execute low-level operating system commands.

The PowerShell inbuilt command that is used to generate Hashes for Cryptographic Verification is:

Get-FileHash filename -Algorithm SHA256

 

In a demonstration in a Windows PC, the example in this scope covers, but ain’t limited to the SHA256 Algorithm only, although many other Hashing Algorithms can be used, e.g. SHA256. The example generates a Hash for the Windows executable, Conda version 3, which is 64-bit.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-FileHash C:\Users\Downloads\Programs\Conda_v3_Win_x86_x64.exe -Algorithm SHA256

Algorithm Hash Path
——— —- —-
SHA256 F18060CC0BB50AE75E4D602B7CE35197C8E31E81288D069B758594F1BB46AB45 C:\Users\Downloads\Programs\Conda_v3_Win_x86_x64.exe

 

After the hash is generated it is easy to verify of the Windows executable is Legit or pirated / suspicious. This can be done by comparing the generated output [the SHA256 Hash] with the provided SHA256 Hash [which is most likely provided by the software developers of most Copyrighted, Legit software].

In our example, with Conda as the case scenario, the provided hash from the official site for Anaconda is provided as:

f18060cc0bb50ae75e4d602b7ce35197c8e31e81288d069b758594f1bb46ab45, which is evidently similar to the Windows Powershell output.

 

Other Platforms

Linux

In Linux operating systems, terminal has an inbuilt function to generate the required hash:

sha256sum filename

where the filename includes the full path to the downloaded installer.

 

macOS

MAC operating system’s terminal also has an inbuilt function to generate the required hash:

shasum -a 256 filename

where the filename includes the full path to the downloaded installer.

Using Windows Powershell for Cryptographic Verification
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