Karen's Hasher

[FanJ]

Ron posted recently an update notice for Karen's Hasher:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=90531

Karen has several very nice, free, utilities !!!
Her site:
http://www.karenware.com/
Her Power Tools:
http://www.karenware.com/powertools/powertools.asp
Her Hasher:
http://www.karenware.com/powertools/pthasher.asp

While I was posting this, I just saw that she upgraded her Hasher to Version 2.2.1.
She frequently updates her very nice tools !!!

I am really happy that Karen has added the option to verify a checksum with her Hasher.
Thanks Karen !!!

A little example follows about checking my HOSTS file on my W98SE machine.
(sorry, this was still using version 2.2).

I opened Karen’s Hasher.
I went to Hash Individual Files.
By using Add Files, I browsed to my HOSTS file.

[FanJ]

Then I let it calculate its SHA-1 checksum (your choice which HASH algorithm you would like to use) by clicking Compute SHA-1 Hashes.

[FanJ]

Then I save the result to disk.
Let us say that I make a folder kh in which I put it.

[FanJ]

Now I want to verify whether my HOSTS file has been changed, using Karen’s Hasher.
I open Hasher and go to the tab Verify Saved Hashes.

[FanJ]

I click Open Hash File and browse to my previous saved file.
Then I click on Verify SHA-1 Hash.

[FanJ]

My HOSTS hasn't been changed, so there is no need for me to update the Hash File, and I can exit Karen's Hasher.

[FanJ]

Well, there are of course other so-called File Integrity Checkers with which you can do this.
Each of them uses its own way to do it, some free and some not free.
I name only a few:
- File Checker by Javacool;
- ADinf32 and ADinf32 Pro;
- Inspector in KAV Pers Pro;
- NIS File Check (no longer maintained);
etc etc.

But this thread was about Karen's Hasher.

I do like Karen's Power Tools ! :)

I have given only a very little example showing you what you can do with it.
If you like Hasher, just play with it ;)

That's it for the moment.
Enjoy your Hasher !

Cheers, Jan.

[NICK ADSL UK]

Looking good jan thanks for the heads up :)

[Blackspear]

Thanks Jan, I was looking at this yesterday when her newsletter arrived.

Thank you for the screenshots, I'll be asking more questions soon about this, when I have a moment to install it and have a play...

Cheers ;D

[FanJ]

Hi Nick and Craig :D

My pleasure ;)

==========

Well, I installed now version 2.2.1.

I have to admit that I have not tried everything on Hasher at the moment.
As with all these kind of programs, and of course all other programs, you need to be familiar with how it works.

I am a little bit familiar with some other File Integrity Checkers.
So I tried another test.
This time I wanted two files to be checked:
My HOSTS file and a KAV file:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\KAV Shared Files\Bases\daily.avc

Of course I could have used separate Hasher files .sha1 for each of them.
But I wanted to see how things were going if I used the option Hash Group of Files in Hasher.
So I made a new file test.sha1 in which both those two files were put.
I let Hasher calculate the Hash and saved it to disk.

[FanJ]

Then I updated my KAV.
So that KAV file daily.avc was changed.
Then I ran Hasher again.
Remember that both HOSTS and daily.avc were put in that group in Hasher.
(my HOSTS file was not changed).

See the result:

[FanJ]

Hasher was right that the verification failed.
I knew that that had to be the result, because daily.avc was changed !
But alas, Hasher did not tell me which file in that group was changed.
It could have been HOSTS or daily.avc or both....
And that is the kind of info that you want from a File Integrity Checker !

Does that mean that Hasher is useless?
Far from that !
It gives all kind of nice features.
The only thing at the moment that I could see, is that you have to be cautious when you want more than one files to be checked.
It depends on what kind of info you want.
But I also have to write a disclaimer: for the moment I am not too familiar with it.

Do I like Hasher? Yes, I keep it !
But I also stick with my familiar File Integrity Checkers ;)