Generate Cryptographic Algorithms Hash Function for Encryption

Approved By Aswin Vijayan

Published On January 25th, 2024

Reading Time 6 Minutes Reading

Do you know, what is hash value and its importance of it in digital forensics? If no, then come let’s understand the same and seamlessly generate hash value in the best possible way.

When it comes to investigating cybercrime, there comes a point to transferring files from one device to another device. During this stage how can you ensure that the copied file is the same as the original file? For that, the method that can be used is hashing! It can be done by generating Cryptographic Algorithms hash function for encryption! It is the process to translate stored information into the form of code. The hash values (of the original file and copied file) in digital forensics can be compared to ensure the files are identical.

Uses of Hash Values in Digital Forensics for Encryption

Hashing is a Cryptographic Algorithm in information security that stores a fixed-size bit string value of a file. As we know, the file contains blocks of data. Hashing algorithm transforms this data into a shorter fixed-length value which constitutes the original string.

Hashing output results would change partially or entirely if even a single bit of data in the file is altered. It is the distilled summary of everything within the data file. Hash algorithms in digital forensics are usually a hexadecimal string of several characters in the file. It is a unidirectional process, which means it never works backwards to decode original data back.

Benefits of cryptographic algorithms hash function for encryption

One can find cryptographic algorithms and compare the files for equality. Just by comparing the hash values without opening two files and comparing them word to word, it immediately allows the owner to know if they are different.

It could also be used to check the integrity of document files that have been transferred from one place to another. To ensure that the copied file is not corrupted or altered. One can use a cryptographic algorithm’s hash function for encryption and compare the hash value of the files.

Types of Hash Function in cryptographic algorithms hash function for encryption

There are several types of cryptographic algorithms in information security like Tiger, Ripe-MD, xx-hash and many more. However, the most commonly used forensics hashing functions are MD5, SHA1, and SHA256. These are the main cryptography hash algorithms in digital forensics which are used to check the integrity of files thereafter verifying the collected pieces of evidence.

MD5

It is one of the widely used hashing algorithms in the world. It is a one-way cryptography hashing algorithm because it accepts messages of arbitrary lengths and produces a 128-bit MD5 hash digest. The cryptographic hash function for encryption mainly works to authenticate the message.

Functions:

The basic functionality of the MD5 algorithm is to check the integrity of the data and validate the emails, as described below:

Verifying Data Integrity – The use of hash values in digital forensic is to verify the data or pieces of evidence are altered or not. The comparison of MD5 hash digest files helps to find out the changes or alterations in the files.

Email Validation – MD5 algorithm is also used to verify whether the genuine data is been received on the receiver side or not. To do this sender generates an MD5 hash digest using a private key and sends it to the receiver. Then the receiver verifies the data by generating a digest using the public key and comparing it with receiving hash value.

SHA1 (Secure Hash Algorithm 1)

It is developed by the NSA (National Security Agency of the US) to check the integrity of data. SHA1 cryptographic algorithms hash function for encryption generally encodes the information into a string. It produces a 160-bit hash value, known as a message digest. It is a kind of complex checksum algorithm that is longer in size, which makes it difficult to break.

Functions:

Generally, it is used for file verification and login verification, given as:

Login Verification – While creating an account on a website, a unique identifier corresponding to the username and password will generate. SHA1 hash function change this data into a checksum. When logging in, SHA1 cryptographic algorithms in information security compares the value stored in the database.

File Verification – If a file is downloading using SHA1 checksum, it easily verifies the downloaded file is the same with no modifications to it.

SHA256 (Secure Hash Algorithm 256)

SHA256 cryptography hashing algorithm produces a hash digest of length 256. There are many uses of hash values in digital forensics and SHA256 is commonly used for authentication, verification of transactions and calculation of work proof during the cybercrime investigation. It ensures that the collected evidence is original with no alternations.

Now, the question is how to generate the hash value of your data file?

One and Only Approach to Generate Multiple Hash Values of File!

There are several tools available to generate the cryptographic algorithms hash function for encryption. But for forensic investigation purposes, availing of the all-rounder MailXaminer Software is the wise option. It easily finds the cryptographic algorithms of a file and displays them in a single panel, along with all other file details. One can easily view the hash algorithm values of files without any hassle which can be later used for email encryption.

MailXaminer Software is one of the best email forensics tools which offers innumerable advanced features that help to investigate the crime scene. It mainly helps in analyzing the emails, supporting 20+ file formats and a wide variety of web applications. It has amazing features of email cryptography security that generates the cryptography hashing algorithm for every single file. Besides this, the utility has the efficiency to generate and display multiple hash algorithms in digital forensics at one screen.

How to Calculate Hash Values of File Using Software?

Using MailXaminer, one can easily generate hash values of the data securely. This email forensics tool has an amazing functionality to produce multiple hash algorithms for each file. While loading the data files into the software. Just enable the hash setting option, to get the required hash value for the data.

The software generates multiple hash values which include MD5, SHA1, and SHA256. All these values will be generated provided the user will choose the appropriate option for the same from the software panel.

Concluding Lines

In order to generate cryptographic algorithms hash function for data encryption, this write-up has clearly elaborated the solution in the best possible way. Concerning the investigation of the crime scene, it is pretty important to untampered the collected evidence without making a kind of alterations. Hence, there comes a need to generate a hash value for the evidential data to check the data integrity and to verify the collected artefact.