What is a Hash Sum?

A hash sum is a number that can be used to uniquely identify a file and its contents. A hash sum can be thought of as a "fingerprint" of a file, in that it is very unlikely that the hash sum from one file will be the same as that for another file.

The process of running some data through a calculation to create a single, identifying value is called hashing. The resulting value of this process is called a hash or hash sum. The hash functions are designed to ensure it is highly unlikely that two different sets of data can produce the same hash.

A hash sum is part of the chain of trust that helps promote security. A hash sum provides a unique identifier for a set of data such as a file. After downloading the file, you can use your own hash function to determine the hash sum for the file and then check it against the hash sum provided on the web site. If the two match, you know that the file you downloaded was the file the web site author wanted you to download. This helps protect against someone who has hacked into a web site and substituted their own file (which may contain malicious behaviors) for the official file.

Auric provides two hashes for each file. These are known as MD5 and SHA256. Please contact your IT department for ways you can verify these values yourself.

You can search Google for MD5 and SHA256 utilities for Windows.

For added security, you can request validation of this value independently from tech support. Please specify the product for which you are requesting the hash sums.

Auric recommends you always check the hash sum for any file before you install it on your secure systems.