Trying to be safe when downloading software with that in mind ran into this during a search for s...

[G+_Rud Dog]

Trying to be safe when downloading software with that in mind ran into this during a search for software which formmats USB drives to ext4.

 

"The signature for setup-x86_64.exe can be used to verify the validity of this binary using this public key."

 

Realizing didn't know who to check the signature against the public key came here to see if anyone has a quick and dirty tutorial on how this is done.

 

Running Windows 8 PC

 

Thanks

 

Rudy

[G+_Rud Dog]

Holy Cow! Can't believe users actually carry out all the steps called out in this "HowTo" must be an easier way?

 

https://www.deepdotweb.com/jolly-rogers-security-guide-for-beginners/how-to-verify-your-downloaded-files-are-authentic/

[G+_Rud Dog]

Wayne Hobbins fantastic now when I need and the software is available will go to majorgeeks. Now to donate via paypal. Thanks Wayne.

[G+_Travis Hershberger]

md5sum isn't included with Windows 8?  All you should have to do is hit up a command prompt and run 'md5sum filename'

[G+_Steve Martin]

Yes, but it doesn't appear that Cygwin provides md5sums, which are broken, btw.

 

OTOH, to get an MD5 of a file in Windows, use the latest Powershell:

 

Get-FileHash -Algorithm md5

 

Ya, not all that easy to remember, but still pretty easy. It also handles a number of other digests including sha1 and sha256 for instance.

[G+_Rud Dog]

Travis and Steve, sorry but as soon as I read your responses my memory took me back to Charlie Brown's teacher and what he was hearing her say.

 

Let's see if I have this:

You take and type with in powershell Get-FileHash and point it at the path  for,  here is where I am confused, the downloaded file?

Assuming Powershell will run the "-Algorithm md5" <-not sure what this all means or does?

Guess I should have stated it was all new to me.  Remember be gentle.

Appreciate you time and input.

 

Rudy

[G+_Steve Martin]

Actually, powershell can be very helpful when doing this kind of thing. It features Tab completion of nearly all commands. What that means is you can just hit the tab key to find out what options are available.

 

So to perform this command, do the following:

 

Open Powershell

cd to the directory where the file is. I imagine you might be able to do this with:

 

cd .\Downloads

 

Then to perform the command:

 

type: Get-F

 

That means to start typing Get-F and press the Tab key. The first option should be Get-FileHash, if you keep pressing the Tab key Powershell will cycle through the commands that start with "Get-F". If you don't see Get-FileHash then you may be on an older version of Powershell. If you do find it, then after you see Get-FileHash press the Space bar and then the path to the file. If it is in the Downloads directory where you cd'd to earlier, then try:

 

Get-FileHash .\set

 

So that will start cycling through all files in the current directory that begin with "set". If you are looking for setup-x86_64.exe then just tab until you see that file on the command line. Then type the Space bar again.

 

Then type a single hyphen/dash key followed by the Tab key:

 

Get-FileHash .\setup-x86_64.exe -

 

Powershell will again cycle through the options at this point, the first one will be the -Algorithm option, which is what we want. So type Space again and then M key followed by Tab:

 

Get-FileHash .\setup-x86_64.exe -Algorithem M

 

you will see the algorithms that Get-FileHash can perform that start with the letter M. The second one should be MD5, so you can just hit the Enter/Return key:

 

Get-FileHash .\setup-x86_64.exe -Algorithem MD5

 

The results will be shown. For the latest setup-x86_64.exe the result I got was:

 

Algorithm Hash

--------- ----

MD5 7A7969C997A9FC93A96228EAEA59D48F

 

If you don't have the latest file, your result will not be the same.

 

By the way, most Powershell commands do not expect positional parameters. What that means is you don't have to type it in that order, for instance this works too:

 

Get-FileHash -Algorithm MD5 .\setup-x86_64.exe

[G+_Rud Dog]

Steve Martin you are a very generous person thank you for taking the time to type those great instructions they worked flawlessly. You have now pointed me in a new direction (darn you) learning more about the power shell. 

Thank you!

 

Rudy