Checking data integrity with cksfv
Check It!
cksfv and the CRC32 algorithm can't compete with modern methods as a way to look for intruders, but if you're just checking for random errors such as a misplaced bit, this ancient tool could still be of service.
Cyclical Redundancy Checks have been around since the 1960s and still exist today as a means for verifying the integrity of a file. The CRC32 checksum variant has existed since the 1990s. Although the CRC32 checksum method is no longer considered safe for security purposes (see the box entitled "Not a Security Tool," a CRC32 check can still identify other forms of random errors that can occur during data transmission or storage.
cksfv (short for "Check Simple File Verification") [1] has lived a quite admirable lifetime as a tool for checking data integrity using CRC32 checksums. A new version (v1.3.15) appeared in 2020 after a gap of 11 years [2]. Today even the project's developers want to be sure everyone knows cksfv should not be considered a replacement for more modern tools. The cksfv manpage states, "The algorithm is cryptographically crippled so it cannot be used for security purposes. Md5sum and sha1sum are much better tools for checksumming files. Cksfv should only be used for compatibility with other systems." The fact that md5sum [3] and sha1sum [4] are also now considered insecure is an indication of the recent inactivity at the cksfv project. However, if you are interacting with systems that use CRC32 to look for simple data errors, cksfv is still around and runs on most Linux systems.
Generating Checksums
It is easy to deploy the cksfv binary[5] via the usual
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